
After months of leaks and rumors, Samsung officially launched the Galaxy S25 series at the Unpacked event on January 22. While Samsung talked about all AI and other features integrated into the Galaxy S25 series, it kept mum about the satellite connectivity feature that the Galaxy S25 series comes equipped with.
It was Qualcomm that spilled the beans and confirmed that "the Galaxy S25 series is the first commercial device to feature Snapdragon Satellite, which allows consumers to send and receive messages via satellite (narrowband NTN) natively supported in Android OS." Now, satellite consultant Christian Frhr. Von der Ropp (via LightReading) has since provided a possible explanation for why Samsung skipped mentioning the satellite connectivity feature during the event.
According to Ropp, although the Galaxy S25 series supports satellite D2D (Direct-to-Device) services, Samsung has left it up to the carriers to get into an agreement with satellite service providers to enable satellite connectivity on the Galaxy S25 series. To take on Apple's Emergency SOS satellite messaging service, Qualcomm joined hands with Iridium to "integrate satellite messaging into Android devices using Iridium's LEO satellites." Reportedly, Qualcomm did not find any smartphone maker that would add the technology to their phones to connect to Iridium satellite, which is why the deal broke off in 2023.
"So what is Samsung's mitigation strategy? Sidestep the Qualcomm-Iridium drama by forcing Qualcomm back into their role as hardware vendor, let them develop a 5G NTN (non-terrestrial network) -enabled chipset, integrate it into the S25 series, and leaving it to the MNOs to sort out the satellite service," Ropp explained.
For now, Verizon is the only carrier that has officially announced that it has reached an agreement with Skylo to bring satellite messaging services to the Galaxy S25 series in the US. So, if you are a Verizon customer, then you will be able to use your Galaxy S25 series phone to send SOS messages when you need emergency services or are stuck in an area without cellular connectivity. Customers on other carriers may need to wait for their providers to enable satellite SOS services.
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