Snapdragon Satellite

Satellite communication has been one of the most interesting developments in the smartphone space recently. Apple was first with the iPhone 14 announcement of support for emergency satellite-based messaging. It uses the Globalstar system and covers North America.

Not long after Apple's launch, Android fired back with Qualcomm's announcement of satellite communication support in the Snapdragon family. This is based on the Iridium constellation and also handled by Garmin on the "receiving" end.

Both are great developments and something somehow unexpected, as satellite terminals were always associated with bulky antennas. Now in both Apple's and Qualcomm's solutions, the bulky antennas are gone. The disappearing antennas probably have consequences of having to point phones precisely to the open clear sky to make a connection. But still, these developments are remarkable.

Now the interesting angle is whether anyone relying on emergency satellite connection would want that to be in the phone itself. Phones generally are fragile. Not just mechanically. They are very complex hardware / software - wise and I would argue the probability of a failure of a smart phone is much higher compared to the probability of a failure of a dedicated satellite communicator - such as the Garmin inReach.

Long story short - if I was to go on a trip potentially backed by satellite connectivity - I would rather carry a separate device with me. Of course if my phone could serve as a backup - that would be great. But stuffing more and more critical functions in a phone elevates it to a huge single point of failure. And for critical functions, such as navigation/emergency connectivity, it is good to have some redundancy.