According to the latest reports, the Bullitt Group has joined hands with chipmaker MediaTek in order to introduce “the world’s first smartphone to boast two-way satellite messaging capabilities.” No doubt, this market is becoming very competitive, so, the two-way satellite smartphone and satellite service will go on the market in the first quarter of 2023, along with a year of free satellite SOS messaging according to Bullitt.
Are You Ready To Meet Two-Way Satellite Smartphone?
It is quite clear that Bullitt is competing with T-Mobile US and SpaceX’s Starlink for messaging from space. Before this, Nokia and AST SpaceMobile stated that they had signed a five-year 5G deal to make a space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by standard mobile phones.
Bullitt further stated that the device switches to the satellite link only when no cellular or Wi-Fi connection is available. This service will also integrate users’ contacts in such a way that it will provide a seamless experience while using the satellite link to communicate with a phone on a cellular network. The point worth mentioning here is that the time to initially connect to the satellite and send a message is around 10 seconds only. Richard Wharton, a co-founder of Bullitt, stated:
“Over 13 years, we have developed a deep understanding of our clients who, by nature of their lifestyle or employment, frequently find themselves in remote locations outside of cellular coverage.”
JC Hsu, corporate VP at MediaTek, Taiwan, also stated:
3GPP NTN project supports allowing device manufacturers access to satellite connectivity. We are extremely proud of developing the two-way satellite messaging technology utilized in this first commercially accessible phone and for being the pioneers in developing the ecosystem for satellite communication based on 3GPP NTN standards.
Let me tell you that AST SpaceMobile is actually a wholesale satellite operator working with Globe Telecom, Vodafone, and others in order to deliver satellite services to standard mobile phones. Reports claim that Bullitt is the First company to Use MediaTek’s 3GPP NTN Chipset. The most recent entrant, Bullitt, stated that together with MediaTek, it had worked over the last 18 months in order to enable the addition of direct-to-satellite communication in its next-generation Bullitt 5G smartphones.
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