Smartphones are slowly adopting the capability to connect to satellites for emergency calls and messages with the help of special hardware components. The iPhone 14 was the first smartphone to offer emergency communications via satellite connectivity. Samsung is also expected to bring a similar feature to its Galaxy smartphones in the future. But what if regular smartphones could offer satellite calls and messages?
World's first satellite call using an unmodified smartphone was made using Galaxy S22 Ultra
Well, the Galaxy S22 Ultra has become the first regular smartphone to make a satellite call. It is the first off-the-shelf smartphone that was used to make a satellite call without any special hardware inside. A company called AST SpaceMobile, in partnership with AT&T, just made history by making a satellite call using the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which doesn't have any special capability. The call was made from Texas to another phone in Japan.
Signals originating from the Galaxy S22 Ultra in Texas, USA, first reached BlueWalker 3 satellite and then redirected to the other smartphone in Japan. An unspecified AT&T spectrum was used as a middleman, and that is the reason why it worked without any special hardware inside the smartphone. The phones successfully exchanged SIM and network information through the Bluewalker 3 satellite. This means that any LTE smartphone can be used to make satellite calls in a similar fashion.
In the future, all smartphones could make calls, send/receive texts, and even get internet connectivity without expensive cellular tower infrastructure. This could bring 4G/LTE and 5G connectivity to remote areas that would otherwise not have any connectivity infrastructure. AT&T, Rakuten, and Vodafone participated in this test, and engineers were able to conduct similar tests on various other phones and devices.
