It is not the first time that Apple has set trends in the technology sector, and the fact that it launched the iPhone 14 family of mobile phones with satellite connectivity last year opened the doors for other technology companies to also join in over time with their respective initiatives.
In fact, last January we saw the presentation of Snapdragon Satellite by Qualcomm for smartphones and many other devices, yesterday we saw Samsung presenting its new generation of Exynos modem with integrated satellite connectivity, and now it is MediaTek who , taking advantage of its presence at the MWC 2023 in Barcelona, ​​will do the same presenting its MT6825 chip.
An efficient and easy-to-implement chip for manufacturers
MediaTek points out that its new chip it supports two-way satellite messaging through non-terrestrial networks (NTN) and also has the open source standard R17 NTN, recently created by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
And also in his favor he points out that it is a chip Quite efficient in energy consumption, and it does not require large system requirements to be part of smart mobile phones, Therefore, manufacturers will be able to implement it in their current models without major problems, maintaining the rest of the configurations.
This year the first devices with the MediaTek chip will arrive
In addition, MediaTek has reached an agreement with the British telecommunications company Bullitt to combine its chip with the Bullitt Satellite Connect platform for three devices that will see the light in the coming months.
They are about Motorola Defy Satellite Link, which we already mentioned a few hours ago, and Motorola Defy 2 and CAT S75, two models of smartphones with current features, since they have a 6.6″ screen at 120Hz or a 5,000 mAh battery for example, which fall into the category of rugged mobiles.
These models actually share similar specifications, although the Motorola Defy 2 will arrive in the US and Canada in the second half of this year at a price of $600, while the new CAT S75 is already in the pre-release phase. -Order for Europe, Middle East and Africa for just over $630.
Now there are all the necessary ingredients for manufacturers, especially mobile phones under the Android system, to start launching mobile models with integrated satellite connection over the next few years, with hardware options already available, and wherever done, at the software level, Android 14 also houses support for NTN connectivity, so we can think that it will initially reach future flagships of the main brands and then extend and be more available to users through mid-range and low-end models that arrive much later.
And to think that for many years, satellite connectivity has been exclusively available for military devices, and only recently has it become available to the average user, and most interestingly, that the new solutions are much more complete than the one integrated by Apple. on their mobiles.
More information: MediaTek
