Epitomize: Satellite-based telephones, or sat phones, accept been effectually for decades. Globalstar, for example, has been operating commercially since 1999. Upwardly to this point, however, sat phone usage has largely been express to remote regions of the globe that are out of range of traditional jail cell towers.

Terrestrial wireless providers upwards to this bespeak have been a necessary part of the smartphone equation, merely that could all change starting with Apple tree'south adjacent iPhone.

Renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a recent note to investors viewed by MacRumors said the iPhone 13 family unit will send with hardware that allows them to connect to depression earth orbit (LEO) satellites. If true, and with the right software, iPhone 13 users could potentially conduct voice and text communications without a 4G or 5G cellular connection or Wi-Fi.

Apple tree isn't unique in coming upwardly with the idea but they could be first out of the gate with it. Kuo said Apple ready an R&D team "some time" agone to wait into the tech.

The chip to enable such functionality is said to exist a modified version of Qualcomm'south X60 baseband chip; other handset makers are reportedly waiting for the X65 baseband chip to implement satellite communications, and that might non happen until 2022 at the earliest.

Kuo said satellite communications visitor Globalstar is "well-nigh likely" to work with Apple in terms of engineering science and service coverage.

It's unclear exactly how service plans could work, but Kuo believes the easiest scenario would be for individual network operators to work with Globalstar and offering the characteristic to customers with no additional contracts or payments.

Bringing satellite tech to general consumer devices is an interesting thought, and Kuo believes it could be comparable to mmWave 5G in terms of the impact it has on the wireless manufacture. And if Apple is indeed the first to market it on a wide scale, it could be used to farther wide its iPhone install base.