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Kuo: iPhone 13 to Feature LEO Satellite Communications to Make Calls and Texts Without Cellular Coverage

HeavenDynamic said:
This is the kind of feature that would be US-only for at least 10 years.
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i highly doubt this rumour is something plausible, but speaking of us-only: LEO satellites travel very fast, so there is just a finite tine while they can cover the US, and then zip away to the rest of the world. even so, you’d need way too much satellites to provide jus US coverage - so it would be a total waste of money to limit the service area to the US only. you’d just need aome earth stations to backhaul the satellites over a specific area just as spaceX starlink has it - the inter-satellite laser comms doesn’t work yet and i have doubts that it ever be functional.
the economics of a LEO based communications service has far more investments into the satellites (putting in orbit, majntaining, replacing, collecting) than it would cost to have a more distributed uplink station network on the surface.
so if - and i have serious doubts in the viability of starlink itself - someone would start a LEO communications service, it would imply they do it on global level, or end up as a ponzi scheme.
HAPs might be an option for such a service, requiring way less challenges and investment compared to LEO, still it would be economically questionable for a localised niche market
 
tgwaste said:
It should use it for free in emergency situations. THAT would be a good, customer focused, feature.
But thats not Apple.
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i think apple's not customer focused when it comes to the software experience, and they certainly go slow nowadays when it comes to major hardware advancements.

when it comes to support however, i've had greater than 95% positive experience. topped by the time my 3+ year, didnt buy AC 15" MBP was dying; senior advisor approves a good faith repair which warranties the device for 3 months. cropped up possibly other, but similar issues, couldnt solve the problem with 2 more repairs so they replaced it outright with the closest model they could provide. so it ended up being a 2018 that was a decent deal better than what i had, but comparable to what i paid.

walked right out of the apple store with a receipt for a payment of $0, and a sealed, new in box 2018 15" mbp. it was just under $3k normally.

apple is indeed customer focused at times.
 
Satellite phones have become reasonably compact in recent years so this rumour is plausible:
 

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cmaier said:
What you’re missing is that in America we have a lot more “middle of f’ing nowhere” than does Europe. Even on the highly populated coasts, there is a lot of “f’ing nowhere,’ and that’s certainly the case in the middle of the country. So the places where most people live (urban and suburban areas, primarily on the coasts, but also urban areas scattered about the rest of the nation) have pretty decent coverage (though not always from every carrier). But anyone who has to go to, say, east texas/west louisiana, or Kansas, or whatever, is a lot less likely to find a decent 4G signal, let alone a 5G signal.
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Yeah right. Also, I had no LTE/4G connection with TMobile at JFK 🤣
 
If Apple were stick a massive fold out antenna on the back of the iPhone to get this to work I wouldn’t actually mind.

I used to love the pull out antennas on old phones lol.
 
UK-MacAddict said:
If Apple were stick a massive fold out antenna on the back of the iPhone to get this to work I wouldn’t actually mind.

I used to love the pull out antennas on old phones lol.
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What about those motorized antennas on expensive 90s cars. How cool was that.
 
dphuntsman said:
While you have a point; there’s also a related limitation, if they do the satellite hookup with the Globalstar system. Unlike Iridium, which has inter-satellite links (like 2nd generation Starlink satellites will have, tho, Starlink’s will be via high-data rate lasers, not optical), any Globalstar satellite in space that your phone on the ground connects to will only work IF it can see- line of sight- a Globalstar ground station; meaning, Globalstar has to have a legal ground station et al in the immediate world region. (One of a couple of reasons Globalstar doesn’t, er, work well at the poles, for example). The US military contracts with Iridium because your Iridium phone goes up to an Iridium satellite and then the signal gets bounced around the planet, satellite to satellite, until it gets sent to the nearest ground station. Using Globalstar automatically adds inhibitions if that’s what will be used; tho, expect it would be cheaper than trying to use Iridium (not a problem with the military, who has a large, premium, communicate-from-anywhere-anytime requirement). The currently being built Lynk Global System (CEO: Charles Miller), will be a LEO system (unlike Globalstar and Iridium, which are MEO, and much higher), and will allow ANY ol’ cell phone ANYWHERE in the world to communicate, via it’s network, via regular voice phone and text, at almost certainly a lower price point. It’s already been demonstrated with text as well. Satellites currently being built.

Dave Huntsman
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I wonder how Lynk thinks they can compete with Starlink?
 
what sort of joke is this? and why MacRumours is quoting this without even a bit of healthy skepticism?

Satellite connection, you say? :)
-what about huge charges?
-what about massive power consumption?
-what about gigantic antenna?
-which satellite constellation would allow such a network traffic?

Guys! please be serious! it looks like a fool's day, and you're so easy to swallow such a bull****.
 
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WLSON said:
They don't own the satellites and ground stations.
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Apart from IP, shares, the spaceship and some other facilites plus Apple Stores they own basically nothing.

People act like if Apple were Samsung or Huawei. It’s not. Apple is a paper titan without industrial base. They even pay Amazon for AWS.

Apple is a lifestyle brand first, a user experience design co specialized in tech second.

They sell fancy computers at fancy stores with nice storytelling like Gucci sells fancy sneakers at fancy stores with nice storytelling.
 
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I'm aware, I was just replying to his specific example. If you don't own the infrastructure you're not a telco.
 
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GubbyMan said:
Globalstar satellite phones have huge antennas sticking out like they are from the late nineties. Can they really just use the iPhone antennas to connect to these satellites? This rumor from Kuo is specific enough that I wouldn't doubt it though.
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True if we are in the 90s.. new phones like XT Pro barely have an antenna.
 
Not happening. Mark my words.

If Apple can’t get screen based Touch ID ready for prime time, and the notch still exists, this isn’t happening.

The tech isn’t mature enough to fit it in the chassis of an iPhone without an antenna. The coverage isn’t there to warrant it and the market is still to niche.

Maybe they’re working it, but this is vaporware…
 
Dkka1 said:
Yeah right. Also, I had no LTE/4G connection with TMobile at JFK 🤣
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Whereas verizon works fine there. Again, just because urban areas have good coverage doesn’t mean that every carrier is good in every urban area. T-Mobile is among the worst in many places For LTE. The way around it was to use 2 sims, and pick, say, t-mobile or sprint on the one hand, and verizon or AT&T on the other. (though sprint is no longer a meaningful choice).
 
PinkyMacGodess said:
I had a Nano that supported it and it was really just generally worthless. Bad signal, static, iffy reception when moving, and I had how many music tracks? Why would I want FM. I mean, why not throw in CB radio too! 'Breaker 19'...

Some people do use their FM radios. Sure. Rock it if you have to. I value Bluetooth and Sirius/XM.

Anyone remember FMHD? Is that what it was called? So get your commercials in 'CD quality' audio? Sure. I'm so excited... What happened to SACD? And those MiniDisk players that were supposed to end up *everywhere*?

Technology has no mercy as it marches on.

(And bubble memory? 3D cube memory? Quantum Mechanics memory? Star Trek Next Gen memory sticks? Low cal IPAs? (What was the urge to trash IPAs? Good grief people!😡))
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I enjoy my SACDs. The Stones and Steely Dan recordings never sounded better. My VW's HD radio brings in more channels for each "station", helps fund publicly-supported broadcasters. MiniDisk - nope.
 
At another site I saw that it may just be access to another band that is used for satellite communications. Maybe to be used as another normal cellular band for terrestrial use.
 
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cmaier said:
What you’re missing is that in America we have a lot more “middle of f’ing nowhere” than does Europe. Even on the highly populated coasts, there is a lot of “f’ing nowhere,’ and that’s certainly the case in the middle of the country. So the places where most people live (urban and suburban areas, primarily on the coasts, but also urban areas scattered about the rest of the nation) have pretty decent coverage (though not always from every carrier). But anyone who has to go to, say, east texas/west louisiana, or Kansas, or whatever, is a lot less likely to find a decent 4G signal, let alone a 5G signal.
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I live in rural New Mexico and I have virtually no signal. Fortunately I have internet so my phone works via wifi.
 
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