Regular smartphones will not have satellite phone connectivity, which many predict will be an alternative to cellular connectivity. What the new technology will offer is a new generation of satellites with new smartphone electronics that connect to them and enable extremely limited connections.
In the past, there were special satellite phones with very expensive call and data. These devices provide the ability to send text messages, share locations and send an SOS message to a dedicated emergency response center.
Although these special satellite phones are slow, the new satellite connection on smartphones will be slower, and the new smartphone satellite antennas are far less optimized, reducing data speeds below 2 Kbps.
The new smartphone satellite revolution is not expected to significantly help business in the near future. While adventurers, people lost at sea, and extreme travelers will be the biggest beneficiaries of the technology, it will be useless to people in forests, canyons, caves, or elsewhere without a perfect line-of-site to the sky.
Despite the hype surrounding the smartphone satellite connection, dedicated satellite phones will remain superior especially for business communications outside the normal cellular coverage areas.
The sources for this piece include an article in ComputerWorld.
