With just a chip less than a fingernail, MediaTek can help Android smartphones break the iPhone’s monopoly

The feature of sending emergency SOS messages via satellite, implemented by Apple with the iPhone 14 series, is gradually becoming popular. Almost every day we hear about someone’s life being saved thanks to this new feature. This will certainly bring more users closer to choosing an iPhone when they need to buy a new phone. Other smartphone manufacturers, who don’t want Apple to take away their customers, show they are willing to integrate this feature into their devices.

Huawei recently announced that it will use the emergency SOS feature on new phone models. Qualcomm also introduced its Snapdragon Satellite service, which is expected to go live in the second half of 2023.

Samsung also announced its entry into satellite connectivity for smartphones. However, the Korean phone company’s technology promises to go far beyond Apple, as it allows users to send full messages, pictures and even videos via satellite.

It can be said that in the near future, satellite messaging looks like it will be the next must-have feature for smartphones. However, most likely this will only be a feature reserved for high-end phones. MediaTek doesn’t want that.

As proof, at the ongoing MWC 2023 event in Barcelona, ​​the Bullitt brand launched the Motorola Defy Satellite Link. This $150 tech accessory can connect any handheld device to a satellite network. And the secret lies in a new chip from MediaTek placed inside.

The MediaTek 6825 is a standalone chip, just smaller than a fingernail and adds less than $10 to the cost of the original product. It provides the ability to link equipment to satellites and is more special in that the way the service is deployed is completely up to the original manufacturers (OEMs). Bullitt, for example, has its own plans to relay messages over existing satellite networks.

“Our solution can basically be added to any form of 5G or 4G phone, from low-end to high-end,” said Finbarr Moynihan, vice president of marketing at MediaTek. “And it doesn’t even need to be used with a device using a MediaTek system chip. Conceptually, it can work with any chipset.”

Unlike Apple or Qualcomm’s satellite solutions, which connect to networks of satellites like Globalstar or Iridium that are orbiting the Earth in low orbit, MediaTek’s chip connects to satellites further in orbit. geostationary religion. While text messages take longer to relay over geostationary satellites, users won’t need to point their phones up to the sky to connect.

And MediaTek’s 6825 chip is designed with the 3GPP Release 17 broadband mobile standard, so it should work with satellite networks that support that standard. For more, Release 17 is the standard that paves the way for low bit rate connections between terrestrial devices and satellite networks already in space, essentially allowing phones to send texts and data bursts. short data via satellite. The MediaTek 6825 is MediaTek’s solution for this form of satellite connectivity, and the company says it won’t release another version of the chip until the next connectivity standard comes out. Release 18, due out in the next few years, promises to pave the way for relayed voice and video calls via satellite.

And even after Release 18 and future MediaTek 5G modems include satellite connectivity, the company says it will still release a successor to the 6825. Since last year, the number of phones 5G has shipped more than 4G phones, so MediaTek believes the world will still have plenty of low-cost devices with less advanced modems that can take advantage of this chip.

Refer to Cnet