(Credit: Iridium)
Iridium is back with a new effort to bring satellite connectivity to Android phones—and maybe even laptops—after the company was forced to cancel a similar plan with Qualcomm.
Iridium today introduced “Project Stardust,” which is intended to allow phones on the ground to connect to the company’s fleet of low-Earth orbiting satellites for SMS messaging and emergency SOS services.
The key difference is that Project Stardust will be developed using open standards from 3GPP, making it easier for all kinds of device manufacturers, chip makers, and cellular carriers to integrate Iridium’s satellite connectivity into their products. That’s different from the canceled Qualcomm partnership, where Iridium was focused on using its own proprietary solution to bake the satellite connectivity into Qualcomm’s smartphone chips.
Qualcomm said the deal fell apart after smartphone vendors “indicated a preference towards standards-based solutions.” In a call with journalists today, Iridium CEO Matt Desch added that the proprietary solution was initially proposed since it could be developed quickly, offering a way for the Android ecosystem to swiftly respond to Apple’s Emergency SOS feature for iPhones.
But Desch noted that smartphone vendors didn’t necessarily want to tie themselves to one chip vendor to receive the satellite connectivity. "They preferred ultimately a more standardized approach, so we're reacting to that, and we'll be developing to the 3GPP standards," he said.
(Credit: Iridium)Pivoting to the open-standards approach will take more time for Iridium to integrate the necessary configurations into the company’s satellites and vendor chipsets. “But once they are in our system, smartphones provided by mobile network operators could then roam onto our system when they are out of coverage,” Desch said. “And they can send messages, their locations, and get help when they’re in an emergency.”
The satellite connectivity also won’t require any specialized equipment on the phone. The goal is to roll out the technology through what is essentially firmware that chip makers can integrate on their smartphone processors. Users could then activate and access the Iridium satellite network through an app.
Project Stardust also won’t be limited to phones. The company is hoping other consumer device makers for tablets, smartwatches, laptops, and IoT products, adopt the satellite connectivity. Although no partners were named, Iridium is aiming to start testing the system next year before launching it in 2026.
Project Stardust will arrive as SpaceX’s Starlink and AST SpaceMobile also prepare to launch their own cellular satellite services for phones, possibly as soon as this year. In addition to text messaging, both companies plan on enabling satellite-based calls and even data downloads over unmodified smartphones.
In contrast, Iridium’s Project Stardust is currently focused on messaging. However, the company’s CEO pointed out that the Iridium satellite network uses the L-band spectrum, enabling it to offer connectivity across the globe through its existing satellites, without going through new regulatory hurdles — an issue SpaceX’s Starlink has been facing.
Desch says he’s also skeptical about offering high-speed internet from satellites. “I don’t really have the capacity to do broadband on our network to a smartphone. And the physics aren’t very good for it. You need really big antennas to do that.”
“I’ve heard other people go, ‘Look, we got a 20 megabit per second connection to one phone.’ Well, the real connection to most phones is going to be tens or hundreds of kilobits per second at the most,” he added. “When you’re in a 5G, 6G environment, I’m just really skeptical about the user experience in those kinds of environments.”