(Credit: Starlink)
Smartphone chipmaker MediaTek is preparing to support SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile, a satellite-to-phone service designed to eliminate cellular dead zones.
MediaTek today said it’s working with SpaceX “to support wireless emergency alert messages via satellite communication.” The Taiwanese chipmaker is also demoing the tech at Mobile World Congress on its M90 5G modem, which the company debuted a year ago.
The partnership is notable, given that MediaTek holds about a 34% share of the smartphone chip market, with its processors popular in midrange handsets.
MediaTek’s announcement only focused on satellite-powered emergency alert messages, including for earthquakes and tsunami warnings. Still, we wouldn’t be surprised if the collaboration goes further. In a keynote at MWC on Monday, SpaceX executives made a huge push to promote Starlink Mobile as a way for mobile carriers to offer satellite connectivity to users in remote areas without a cellular connection.
(Credit: MWC)The satellite-to-phone service is already available through T-Mobile, using the carrier’s 1.91 to 1.995GHz spectrum. It's currently bandwidth-constrained, but SpaceX is promising a huge 5G upgrade to Starlink Mobile that promises to unleash download speeds up to 150Mbps, more than enough to power high-quality video calls and possibly even game streaming.
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To do so, the company is preparing to launch next-generation satellites designed to harness valuable radio spectrum that SpaceX is buying from Boost Mobile’s parent, EchoStar. The problem is that today’s smartphones don’t support the 2GHz “S-band” frequencies that SpaceX is acquiring. So, the company needs to work with chip and modem makers to integrate the radio frequencies, a process SpaceX CEO Elon Musk estimates will take about two years.
Interestingly, SpaceX’s VP for Satellite Engineering, Michael Nicolls, tweeted that his company is testing wireless emergency alerts in Europe using the S-band, in partnership with MediaTek.
In his MWC keynote, Nicolls also said the upgraded Starlink Mobile will be supported “on most devices in the US” by mid-2027, when the company expects to launch the first next-generation satellites for the service. "We're also working closely with device manufacturers and modem manufacturers to enable the service on as many devices as quickly as possible," he said.
Samsung, another major smartphone chipmaker, has reportedly also been working on its own modem to support Starlink Mobile.