2023-04-25 15:57:00
TL ؛ DR
- AST SpaceMobile and AT&T made the first moon call using an unmodified smartphone.
- The call traveled from Texas to Japan, and was received by a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra retailer.
- This would allow any smartphone to make/receive calls anywhere in the world.
Satellite phones are nothing new. These bulky, bulky phones communicate directly with a satellite using specialized hardware. Unfortunately, with the way smartphones are designed, it wasn’t possible to cram all of the satellite phone technology into a regular phone.
However, a company called AST SpaceMobile has proven that you don’t need to cram anything into a smartphone for satellite communication. The company – in partnership with AT&T, one of the main investors – made the first satellite call using off-the-shelf smartphones, specifically the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. AST placed the call from Texas to a phone in Japan.
You might be thinking, “But wait, I thought hardware that does this is only in newer phones, like the Galaxy S23 with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 inside.” This is true, but this is something completely different. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 supports satellite calling (even if Samsung hasn’t done anything with it yet), but only through text messaging. This system uses the Iridium satellite network and works like Garmin’s InReach products and its competitors. You cannot use it for phone calls.
With this first satellite call, the signal from Texas traveled from the Galaxy S22 Ultra to the BlueWalker 3 satellite, and then back to Japan to another smartphone. The unspecified AT&T spectrum was a go-between, which is why the phones themselves didn’t need to be modified for this to work. In theory, you can do this with any LTE-enabled phone.
According to the AST, this initial test also proves what we all really want to know: that BlueWalker 3 can support cellular broadband data speeds. In other words, this test proves that connecting anyone anywhere — even without the infrastructure of an expensive cell tower — is possible, even as smartphones remain unchanged.
In the future, this may allow people who live in rural areas or developing countries to have cellular connectivity. This can also reduce the stress on (or even usurpation of) traditional cell towers when it comes to voice, text, and data signals.
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#lunar #call #ordinary #smartphone
