The high technology feature of satellite communication, as Huawei and Apple's new machines have been adopted, oscillates the under-innovated cell phone field.

 

 

Based on more than 10 years of in-depth understanding of the cell phone industry, we invited Fu Liang, MBA of Renmin University of China, independent TMT analyst and competitive intelligence consultant, Yu Chenzhi, CEO of AGM Outdoor Mobile Phone, and Huang Xu, CEO of Satellite World, and other experts to discuss the topic of "Is satellite communication the next windfall for cell phones" on September 15 (this Thursday) at 10:00 a.m. in the video of Chaodian. The topic of "Is Satellite Communication the Next Windfall for Mobile Phones?

 

 

On September 8, Apple announced the iPhone 14 series, which is equipped with satellite communication. Coincidentally, on September 6, Huawei "intercepted" and released the Mate50 series, which also supports this feature.

 

 

 

 

Some industry experts believe that the current smartphone-based satellite communication function is still in the exploration and improvement stage, is far from mature. However, the satellite communication service of cell phone directly connected to the satellite may be an important symbol of the 6G era.

 

 

Xu Sheng, who works for a domestic first-tier cell phone brand manufacturer, said bluntly, "The whole cell phone industry is currently talking more about this, but many people, including themselves, do not pay much attention to this piece of technology."

 

 

Tide Power Intelligence did a small random survey of 10 Huawei and Apple cell phone users (5 each), all of whom said they did not understand satellite communication technology and would not buy a replacement machine for it. Among them, only two Apple phone users said they were "somewhat interested" in this feature.

 

 

Just a day before the Huawei launch, the acquisition of 79.09% of the shares of Meizu Technology's Star Era announced that it will launch the world's first direct-link low-orbit satellite phone, in the desert, deep sea, jungle and other uninhabited areas can also ensure that consumers' communication needs, to achieve true, full-scene, full-area link coverage. Google also recently said that the next generation Android system will support cell phone satellite communication function.

 

 

A war on the future of cell phones is about to be fought in full swing.

 

 

 

Brief history of cell phone satellite communication development

 

 

The biggest advantage of satellite communication is the wide signal coverage.

 

 

Existing cell phone signals are dependent on the nearest base station, the more base stations are distributed, the better the signal, and vice versa, the worse.

 

 

If it is a region with less human activity, such as the ocean, desert, forest and other wild areas, the base station signal can not cover, no matter how strong the cell phone signal, the same will fall into a state of complete disconnection.

 

 

Unlike base stations, satellite communication is directly connected to satellites in space, and its signal basically covers most areas on earth. Therefore, it is of great significance for cell phones to support satellite communication, which can complement the current base station technology and broaden the communication range of cell phones.

 

 

Since the 1980s and 1990s, there have been cell phone companies to develop similar technologies, the most famous of which is Motorola's "Iridium Project."

 

 

The program was launched in 1987, and four years later Motorola established Iridium, a company dedicated to promoting the Iridium program. Iridium spent more than $5 billion and ten years to build 66 artificial satellites.
 

 

 

 

 

 

In November 1998, Iridium officially launched its worldwide communication service, and in their vision, the satellite phone users will reach 12 million by 2002.

 

 

Iridium launched the phone price is $3000 each (equivalent to about 36,000 yuan), each minute call cost $3 (equivalent to about 12.5 yuan).

 

 

In this period, the development of wireless communication has surged, the number of base stations has increased significantly, most areas can achieve signal coverage, and the cost of the phone is far cheaper than satellite phones.

 

 

 

 

Because the costs were so enormous, Iridium filed for bankruptcy protection in August 1999. Only nine months had passed since it opened the Iridium program, and the number of subscribers was just over 50,000.

 

 

Although commercially the Iridium project was a complete failure, but from a technical point of view, the Iridium project was successful, and many of its technical ideas are still not outdated.

 

 

Then came Google's "Balloon Project".

 

 

The plan was launched in 2013, trying to cover the most remote areas of the world by installing communication equipment inside hot air balloons, and then using the balloons to move in the air.

 

 

In January 2021, Google announced the shutdown of its balloon program.

 

 

In contrast, SpaceX's "Starlink" program is a heavyweight.

 

 

In 2015, Elon Musk, through his SpaceX company, plans to launch 4,425 satellites to form a huge network of satellites to provide Internet services to people.

 

 

 

 

To date, SpaceX has deployed about 3,000 Starlink satellites in Earth's near-Earth orbit since the first Starlink satellite lifted off in 2019.

 

 

However, Starlink does not achieve real mobile Internet access, users have no way to use the satellite network to directly access the Internet, but need to buy a separate signal receiver, installed on their own roof or car roof.

 

 

Moreover, users can only use the satellite network within the signal range of the receiver, and there is no signal even if they leave a little, which is actually more like "fixed Internet" than "mobile Internet".

 

 

In addition, the satellite chain network is not connected to the terrestrial network, the network and equipment of the satellite chain are dedicated, and terrestrial communications are two completely different systems.

 

 

"Stabbing the sky" technology, Huawei and Apple who is stronger?

 

 

"This is Huawei mate50 'stabbing the sky' technology. Yu Chengdong, Managing Director and CEO of Huawei's Terminal Business Group, said that the satellite communication function of Huawei's Mate50 series of cell phones supports the Beidou system, and the public users in the Asia-Pacific region can enjoy Beidou-3 short message communication services.

 

 

 

 

The so-called short message service can be simply understood as "sending SMS messages using satellite signals. At present, the service is "sendable but not receivable", i.e., it sends information such as location and text to a designated contact via satellite, but does not receive a reply from the other party.

 

 

The chief designer of the Beidou-3 satellite system and vice president of the Institute of Microsatellite Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lin Baojun, said in a media interview that after the successful formation of the Beidou-3 network, the overall short message communication service of the system has been upgraded and expanded, and the regional communication capability has reached 14,000 bits (1,000 Chinese characters) per time, which can transmit text, voice and pictures, and supports 560 bits (40 Chinese characters) per time. of global communication capabilities.

 

 

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the newly launched Apple iPhone 14 series also carries satellite communication capabilities for the first time, and the signal service provider is GlobalStar (i.e., Global Systems), a U.S. satellite phone and low-speed data communications provider.

 

 

Public information shows that GlobalStar is a satellite mobile communication system, and BeiDou is a positioning and navigation system, and the coverage of the two is different.

 

 

Beidou covers the oceans, while GlobalStar focuses on the continents. The coverage area is also different, as the Beidou-3 system short message communication service covers China and neighboring countries and regions with low cost, wide coverage, high reliability and on-demand access, etc. The signal coverage of GlobalStar Beijing Pass Station is part of China, including part of the mainland and the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea and East Sea.

 

 

In addition, the content that can be distributed by the two companies' phones differs. Huawei Mate50 series can send text and location information, generating multiple locations into a track map. iPhone14 releases a pre-set distress signal with its own location coordinates, which also cannot receive a reply. And can not be directed to individuals, messages are sent to public or paid rescue agencies.

 

 

 

 

In terms of communication capabilities, Apple is stronger than Huawei. Apple is a two-way communication, Huawei is a one-way communication. In other words, Huawei can only send outgoing SMS messages in one direction, but cannot receive them, while Apple can send and receive SMS messages.

 

 

In terms of sending range, Huawei can send to any cell phone, not Huawei cell phones can also receive, Huawei uses the BeiDou satellite short message function, in addition to some customized distress information, but also on the phone to edit the text sent out. Apple can only send to the SO satellite emergency contact, choose a few limited distress codes.

 

 

This is also the current shortcomings and shortcomings of each side.

 

 

An industry chain expert analysis, a satellite manufacturing to the cost of a billion or so in the sky, the annual operation and maintenance of a billion, according to 10 years of life, which means that a satellite needs to send 200 million short messages per year, 1 yuan per article to not lose money.

 

 

Back to the business model, how to make satellite communications into a profitable business, is Huawei and Apple need to think about solving the problem.

 

 

May be about the future 6G

 

 

After popularization from dedicated devices to mass smartphones, satellite communications may usher in a broad space for development.

 

 

As the development of terrestrial communication network technology becomes increasingly mature and users' demand for wider area communication grows, the development of satellite communication and satellite Internet is widely watched, and may even become part of 6G.

 

 

SkyEye data show that as of now there are more than 25,000 satellite communication-related enterprises in China; among them, more than 5,540 new related enterprises were registered from January to August 2022, and the average monthly growth rate of new related enterprises registered from January to August reached 39.1%.

 

 

From the perspective of geographical distribution, Guangdong, Shaanxi to Shandong, the number of related enterprises ranked top, with more than 6,100, more than 2,300 and more than 1,300 respectively.

 

 

6G technology will no longer be limited to mobile communication technology, but the integration of heaven and earth, that is, the integration of satellite communication technology in which the real realization of all-weather, all-territory communication, to ensure that everything on earth are interconnected, which is undoubtedly a huge progress compared to the previous multi-generation mobile communication technology.

 

 

In the previous mobile communication technology, limited by the difficulty of building base stations in the ocean, so the previous mobile communication technology is unable to cover the ocean; as for land areas, due to the cost, technical problems, etc., in the desert region also no mobile communication signal, and these areas to satellite communication coverage is the optimal solution.

 

 

For satellite communications, China and the United States are currently figuring out, the United States has many enterprises to promote satellite communications, several major U.S. tycoons such as Musk, Bezos have promoted or are promoting satellite communications, there are other U.S. companies involved, it can be said that the U.S. side in the promotion of satellite communications technology spared no effort.

 

 

China has in fact also long laid out, in addition to the completed Beidou system with certain satellite communication capabilities, there is also the independent construction of the first high-orbit mobile communication satellite Tiantong 1, in addition to Hong Yan constellation, Hong Yun project and other low-orbit satellite communication projects in the promotion, highlighting China's potential in satellite communications.

 

 

The industry expects that 6G technology will be commercially available in ten years, so it is inevitable that countries around the world will begin to explore the commercialization of satellite communications at this time. Only by early layout can we achieve a leading edge in the future competition of 6G technology.

 

 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)