Samsung has joined the race to enable two-way satellite communication on smartphones. The upcoming Exynos Modem 5300 will allow users in very remote areas (or in disaster areas where utilities have been disabled) to communicate with the world using 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN).
The new modem implements the 3GPP Release 17 standard to ensure interoperability with emerging telecommunications networks and hardware and software developed by smartphone manufacturers.
Here is an example of how NTN communication works. Your smartphone can send a message to a satellite (and “other non-ground vehicles”), which then bounce the message back to a ground station, which in turn broadcasts the message to the regular cellular network for other users to receive.
This is two-way communication, so messages can flow the other way as well. And it’s not just text, in the future users will be able to send high-resolution photos and videos via satellite.
This will be adopted for smartphones, of course, but Samsung also sees uses in “urban aerial mobility” vehicles such as flying cars and unmanned aircraft. You don’t want those to lose connectivity mid-flight.
Either way, Samsung also says it’s working on NarrowBand Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology, which will eliminate the need for a separate high-power antenna chip inside phones.
“Samsung aims to take the lead in advancing terrestrial-NTN hybrid communications ecosystems around the world in preparation for the arrival of 6G,” said Min Goo Kim, executive vice president of communications processor development at Samsung Electronics. Samsung has been working on 6G for years now and the South Korean government wants 6G network prototypes to be ready in 2026.
As for the here and now, this January Qualcomm announced Snapdragon Satellite, which also aims to enable two-way messaging via satellite for smartphones. We should start seeing the first devices of this type in the second half of this year. Qualcomm is also behind Apple’s satellite technology, by the way.
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