A few hours passed when a rumor was doing the rounds stating that Qualcomm was prepping its Snapdragon Satellite feature for Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flagships. An update to that information is that the chipset maker has partnered with someone to make this possible, going down the same route as Apple.
Qualcomm said to form a business relationship with Iridium Communications, the same firm Samsung was previously rumored to have partnered with
Qualcomm and Garmin are expected to take advantage of satellite communications, according to SnoopyTech, who provided the update over his original tweet. Iridium Communications, who was previously rumored to have been in business with Samsung to bring satellite communication to the Galaxy S23 series, is said to be working with Qualcomm to make Snapdragon Satellite a reality.
Iridium Communications currently has 66 active satellites, but it is not confirmed if the existing infrastructure will be provided to Qualcomm or if new satellites will be deployed in a few months. At this time, we only know that to experience communications with Android handsets, your device needs to have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC running. Also, it appears that, for now, only two-way messaging will be possible with compatible smartphones.
Maybe sometime in the future, Qualcomm will work with Iridium Communications to bring a calling feature, but it looks like San Diego will be taking baby steps. Also, there is no word on the kind of investment Qualcomm has put forth into making the Snapdragon Satellite possible. Apple invested $450 million and partnered with Globalstar to bring its Emergency SOS via satellite feature to the iPhone 14 lineup.
We also do not know if the feature on Android handsets will be free for a certain period or if Qualcomm intends to charge Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 handset owners right from the beginning. As always, we have more questions than answers, so all this information and more will likely be available in the second half of 2023, when the Snapdragon Satellite feature is rumored to launch, so stay tuned.
News Source: SnoopyTech
