Iridium Is Offering Its Own Smartphone-to-Satellite Service to Companies

An Iridium satellite is launched using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX

The satellite-to-phone trend we predicted last year didn’t take off as expected, and one of the casualties was satellite network owner Iridium’s severed partnership with chipmaker Qualcomm. Now on its own, Iridium has launched its own service device makers can use to let you send text messages through satellites.

Project Stardust, as Iridium’s service is called, will offer the company’s constellation of satellites to device manufacturers and carriers to provide connectivity straight to phones, cars, mobile networks and internet of things devices. Unlike Iridium’s previously planned partnership with Qualcomm, which was a proprietary service, Project Stardust will comply with the 3GPP 5G standards for non-terrestrial networks.

“The industry is moving quickly towards a more standards-based approach, and after surveying the field, we found that we’re the best positioned to lead the way using our own network, particularly given our true global coverage,” Iridium CEO Matt Desch said in a press release.

Iridium’s constellation of satellites operate in low Earth orbit (LEO), which are a shorter distance away from Earth’s surface than satellites in geostationary orbit and thus take less time to relay messages to phones. Globalstar, the network Apple uses for its Emergency SOS service, also has LEO satellites, but its constellation coverage is limited to certain continents, while Iridium says its satellites have global reach.

A model of Iridium’s global satellite coverage. Iridium

Iridium won’t offer this service directly to consumers; rather, it will partner with companies so that they can develop their own proprietary solutions. Initially, this service will enable 5G messaging and SOS emergency capabilities for phones, tablets, cars and similar consumer applications, according to the press release.

Iridium didn’t mention whether future service would be capable of sending voice and data. That would presumably require more modern satellites than those that Iridium currently uses, which were launched 25 years ago and are around halfway through their lifespan. When Iridium first announced its partnership with Qualcomm at last year’s CES 2023, a Qualcomm executive noted that the current satellites’ GSM-like signal system is closer to 2G than 5G.

Iridium is already working with companies to incorporate their needs into Project Stardust, which they plan to begin testing in 2025 with service expected to start in 2026.

Inside Qualcomm HQ’s Appointment-Only Museum Filled With Retro Phones

Qualcomm’s headquarters in San Diego, California includes a museum that documents the history of the company alongside the evolution of the telecommunications industry.

The museum requires an appointment to visit and showcases the company’s technological developments that include some of the first mobile devices that supported texting and GPS.

Qualcomm’s first commercial product is the Omnitracs system launched in 1988, a satellite-based technology used in the trucking industry. It was a two-part system that allowed drivers to text and use GPS over satellite, as an alternative to using two-way radios that worked in remote areas.The revenue from the Omnitracs product funded efforts that led to Qualcomm’s development of the CDMA platform. Qualcomm later sold Omnitracs in 2013.

In addition to the trucking industry, an Omnitracs system was also developed for the military. This particular model was approved by the National Security Agency and included two phone numbers, one for secure calls and another for nonsecure ones.

Qualcomm moved into the development of the CDMA mobile technology, which at the time was being developed as a competitor to the similar TDMA technology. Its early benefits including more capacity and the ability to hand off phone calls from tower to tower. PacTel Cellular (which later becomes part of Verizon Wireless) was among the early adopters of CDMA.CDMA networks were only recently phased out, with Verizon Wireless turning its 3G CDMA networks off at the end of 2022.

Qualcomm developed a series of wireless payphones in 1998 that used CDMA technology to allow for calls in remote areas.

Among the CDMA devices on display is a Verizon Wireless PC card that allowed for laptops to use 3G networks in 2004.

A van for testing CDMA technology.

Qualcomm’s Mobile Station Modem from 1992.

The larger device seen here was the first prototype high data rate modem used for the development and testing of what later became the EVDO standard. Qualcomm began demonstrating the technology in 1998, and the first commercial device using EVDO was released in 2004.EVDO was an evolution of the CDMA standard, and was retired in 2022 as part of Verizon’s 3G network.

Several early satellite communication devices on display alongside a beer used to toast a first lab call.

The Qualcomm features this wall of phones, laptops, eReaders and other devices that all include technology developed by the company in some manner.

Another angle of the mobile device wall. The Kindle’s (in white, seen lower on the wall) connection is that data for it was held on Qualcomm’s servers.

Several of the exhibits on display include popular devices from the early 2000s, including flip phones and personal digital assistants. The phone labeled no. 19 is the first camera phone, which used an external camera attachment to take photos.

This phone was an example of what was used as part of the presidential limousine. This was a satellite phone that’s highly encrypted.

Qualcomm’s museum also rotates in a variety of modern devices, and in this exhibit is an example of a car dashboard powered by Qualcomm. This idea of having the entire car dashboard represented by digital displays has become more common, with Apple revealing its large automobile interface at WWDC 2023.

Qualcomm put its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip on display for our visit, which is a very tiny piece of silicon that powers the most premium Android phones.

Qualcomm’s engineers use test phones like these while developing the company’s processors. These phones look and function much like a commercial device, but help with testing new features.

Certain models of the Microsoft Surface Pro series include a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor as part of the computer’s build.

The Razer Edge gaming handheld runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 chip.

This is a motorocycle engineering sample, which uses Qualcomm technology to power its automobile systems.

This includes an information dashboard, with similar features to the wider one shown for automobiles.

Qualcomm also put other wearable devices on display that incorporate the company’s technology.

The Qualcomm Museum is open to visitors on weekdays, but only through a Qualcomm sponsor. More information on the museum is on the company’s website.