Qualcomm, Telekom and Skylo have successfully tested sending an SMS via satellite in Europe without using a recent compatible smartphone. A major breakthrough in removing white areas.
THE mobile networks although covering a huge part of the planet, there are still many white areas across the world. Often present in remote places, they are not necessarily uninhabited, or in any case devoid of even occasional human presence. To communicate from these precise points, the only solution is to use satellite transmission. This is not new, there is a emergency system integrated into certain smartphones such as iPhone since iPhone 14.
On the other hand, sending an SMS in the sense we understand it, that is to say outside of any dangerous situation, is a recent advance. Starlink and the American operator T-Mobile only achieved this in early 2024. Since then, the idea has been to make it possible for as many people as possible. Google and T-Mobile have teamed up to make Android 15 support this feature, for example. In Europe, it’s German Telekom who achieves the feat, helped by Qualcomm et Skylo.
Sending SMS via satellite with all smartphones is possible, this test demonstrates it
The idea is to combine the land mobile network with the satellite networkand therefore to offer continuity of service regardless of where you are. The demonstration was done by sending an SMS from a smartphone equipped with the chip Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF Systemusing the spectrum Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) via the Skylo network.
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The Qualcomm modem brings compatibility with satellite communication to any current smartphone. For its part, the MSS allows coverage of all of Europewithout the need to go through the different cross-border frequencies. The objective is therefore to offer universal technology, at least on the Old Continent, without depending on certain mobile models like the Galaxy S24 or the latest Pixel. They will soon no longer be the only protagonists in news stories where satellite SMS saves lives.
