Is your carrier blocking Samsung's life-saving satellite features?

Samsung has announced that it is scaling satellite-to-phone connectivity across more of its Galaxy ecosystem to make emergency and data-based satellite services a part of the standard infrastructure in the AI era. To achieve this, the company said that it is working with major carriers including T-Mobile (Starlink), Verizon, AT&T, Virgin Media O2, MasOrange, Vodafone, KDDI, SoftBank, and NTT Docomo.

Discussing this development, Won-Joon Choi, President and Head of R&D, Samsung MX, said: “As satellite connectivity becomes an important part of the mobile landscape, we are committed to ensuring Galaxy users have reliable access to communication, especially when they need it most.”

The Korean company is retroactively enabling satellite features on aging hardware such as the Galaxy S21 and S22 Series in certain markets. This indicates that these phones always had the hardware for satellite communications, but it was switched off on a software level. In Japan, the features are a bit different too as Samsung has also integrated with the Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) in the country to help protect lives.

Samsung’s announcement highlights a fragmented global landscape where access to these features depends entirely on specific deals it has forged with carriers. This disparity in services between providers (services include anything from basic emergency pings to full data support) creates a tiered experience for users based on their provider and region.

The best carriers are T-Mobile in the US and KDDI in Japan which offer text and data services. Among the worst is Verizon which remains limited to emergency SOS and basic messaging. It shows that the devices are capable, but some carriers are not in a position to offer the full range of features yet.

While interesting news for Samsung customers, it is also a good development for owners of other devices, especially in the mid-tier. Since Apple launched SOS features several years ago, the feature has felt like something for premium devices only. Now that Samsung is pushing this in its Galaxy A devices we can expect it to become more widespread and standard across most phones.