Thurayya satellite system
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuraya
Theye recently got Android phones too https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thuraya-X5-Touch-Satellite-Phone/dp...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuraya
Theye recently got Android phones too https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thuraya-X5-Touch-Satellite-Phone/dp...
My bet is on Iridium (or possibly Globalstar, although that would be a pretty un-Apple like compromise in quality too).
Inmarsat is the only other option, but I think antenna size/directionality would exclude that as well.
I know of one place where Apple does this: in China, and only China, you can buy an iPhone with two physical SIM slots. You can do Dual SIM on iPhones elsewhere, but only with an eSIM.
It may sound super counterintuitive, but providing a stable link to a geosynchronous satellite on a handheld hardware with tiny antenna is easier than with fast flying low earth orbit satellites.
And I doubt't that voice communications, or even Internet service would be there, just SMS, or pager like functionality most likelly.
Iridium modems are among the smallest satellite transceivers available, much smaller than GEO ones.
Looking at something like the Garmin InReach shows what‘s possible with Iridium, and I imagine Apple would be throwing a lot more money at the technical/design constraints.
Than system communicating with geostationary sats.
Training the circuitry onto one weak, but stable satellite signal is much easier than keeping readjusting, or communicting with multiple satellites at once.
Just like with the GPS, the trick is the super duper accurate, and stable frequency reference.
GSM phones used to have large external antennas too, until one day they simply didn‘t anymore.
Features:
- Released end of 2018
- 2GB RAM, 16GB storage
- Android 7.1
- $1,200
- C H O N K score: 2.46cm thick