Snapdragon Satellite will operate thanks to the collaboration of Qualcomm and Iridium Communications
For those that do not know, only smartphones sporting the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will support Snapdragon Satellite. The reason for this is simple. Qualcomm’s flagship SoC features the integrated Snapdragon X70 5G modem, which sports RF systems that make communication with Iridium’s satellites possible. Durga Malladi, senior vice president, and general manager, cellular modems and infrastructure at Qualcomm, expressed his excitement that the feature will arrive to handsets later this year. There is currently no word on the level of investment Qualcomm has made with Iridium Communications to bring Snapdragon Satellite to Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered smartphones. However, Matt Desch, the CEO of Iridium, says that millions of users will be connected to this service. Qualcomm says that Snapdragon Satellite will arrive for compatible smartphones in the second half of 2023. Unfortunately, the chipset maker did not mention which countries will be the first to receive it and whether or not it will be free at launch. What we do know is that Apple is not the only company whose products provide satellite communication now. The advantage that Qualcomm has is that any smartphone vendor can incorporate the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC in their products and obtain satellite connectivity, and that includes price-to-performance devices. We have yet to see how well this service will perform, so we will update our readers in the near future. Stay tuned. News Source: Qualcomm
