Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

With the "flying" of Apple and Huawei mobile phones, the popularity of mobile satellite communications in the industry has not diminished. Recently, British three defense mobile phone company Bullitt announced that it will cooperate with MediaTek to launch mobile phones that support two-way satellite communications in the first quarter of next year, while Shenzhen Star shift Lianxin Technology Development Co., Ltd. also announced recently that it will cooperate with Weiwei to complete China's first 5G satellite broadband communication link, making it possible for ordinary smartphones to access broadband Internet through low-orbit satellite constellations.

So, what about mobile satellite communication at present? What is the real value behind it?

In fact, satellite communication is nothing new, there is already a satellite phone, and in disaster relief, ocean navigation and other fields have a wide range of applications. Therefore, there is a view that mobile phones carrying satellite communications functions are just a "gimmick" created by mobile phone manufacturers seeking differentiation advantages in a "Red Sea". So, what is the truth?

From the perspective of the changes and technological development of the mobile phone, in order to connect directly to the satellite, the mobile phone needs to support the appropriate satellite communication frequency band, and needs to integrate multi-band, small-size mobile phone antenna and RF module. Huawei and Apple's attempt can be said to have taken the first step in exploring the connection of mobile phones to satellites without changing the shape and weight of the phone.

However, it should be noted that the current satellite and 5G NTN (non-terrestrial network) standards, which can connect directly to mobile phones, only support narrowband communications, and the public cannot use one mobile phone to swim both the ground and the satellite network at the same time.

From the satellite side, because the mobile phone is limited by the user experience, it is impossible to install a huge antenna or high-power battery, which requires the satellite to make up for this lack of technology, including higher antenna gain, stronger communication power and so on.

Thus it can be seen that as far as mobile satellite communications are concerned, it is indeed a challenge to achieve real-time high-speed Internet access like using 4G or 5G networks (real satellite Internet).

In spite of this, it still failed to stop the enthusiasm of the industry for mobile satellite communications.

For example, Starry Times, which recently acquired Meizu, said publicly that it will launch the world's first consumer-grade mobile phone directly connected to low-orbit satellites. Google has also confirmed that it will provide the function of connecting mobile phones to satellites in the next version of Android. In August this year, US Space X and US telecom giant T-Mobile jointly announced the establishment of a technology alliance to provide consumers with mobile phones directly connected to second-generation "star chain" satellite services through T-Mobile from 2023.

When we jump out of mobile satellite communications and look at the satellite Internet behind it from a higher perspective, what we see is that the major developed countries in the world are scrambling to lay out this industry. Electronic or aviation giants such as Amazon and Boeing in the United States, and Samsung in South Korea have respectively released the "Constellation Plan"; veteran satellite communications operators Viasat, Telesat, and cutting-edge companies such as SpaceX and OneWeb have also added the code one after another, among which the "Star chain Plan" of the United States SpaceX has launched nearly 3000 "Star chain" satellites, and the company plans to eventually launch 42000 satellites. What's the reason?

Because the layout of satellite Internet not only reflects a country's satellite manufacturing capacity and launch level, but also is an important starting point for building space-space network infrastructure and realizing intelligent aviation, intelligent ocean, and intelligent agriculture in the future. it will also provide the necessary platforms and facilities for the country to carry out major scientific basic research. At the same time, according to the international principle of first-come-first-served satellite orbital resources, countries that preemptively launch low-orbit satellites will occupy more orbital resources, which undoubtedly brings challenges to the development of satellite Internet in other countries.

Therefore, from the author's point of view, the development of satellite Internet is not only as simple as mobile Internet, but also the strategic need of the country.

Based on this, enterprises related to the satellite Internet industry have sprung up this year. According to relevant statistics, up to now, there are more than 25000 satellite communications related enterprises in China, of which more than 5540 have been registered from January to August 2022, with an average monthly growth rate of 39.1%.

Such a high speed of development is naturally a good thing, but happy, the author still thought of the "core-making" heat of the previous two years. The so-called "lesson from the past" hopes that while relevant enterprises attach importance to and actively participate in the competition in the satellite Internet industry, they must adhere to the principle of rational and high-quality development. only in this way can the higher value of satellite Internet be realized and released.

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