After the Starlink V2 announcements by SpaceX and T-Mobile and the legendary introduction of satellite connectivity to the iPhone 14, many are also eagerly awaiting Google Android to follow suit. As planned, the tech giant will officially launch Android 13 mobile OS this fall and supported Pixel devices have already been the first to experience it. But we may have to wait until the next major update for the legendary satellite connection feature.
In a tweet Thursday morning, Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google’s senior vice president of platforms and ecosystems, revealed that the company will fully support partners in implementing related features.
"When it comes to the user experience of a phone that can connect to satellites, it takes me back to the Google G1, which was launched in 2008. It was a lot of work to get 3G and Wi-Fi to work, but now the industry is embracing cool satellite connectivity designs. We're excited to support our partners and implement all of these features in the next big update to Android."
In addition, the satellite connectivity experience for cell phones will be different from 4G LTE / 5G solutions. In last week’s Space Explored announcement, SpaceX said.
"Starlink V2 provides 2~4 Mbps connectivity for areas lacking cellular coverage from wireless carriers, based on a portion of T-Mobile's mid-band PCS spectrum. In addition, depending on the length of the message, the satellite bandwidth can support 1 to 2 k of voice / hundreds of thousands of SMS / even some messaging applications concurrently. However, operators also mentioned that this matter requires intensive cooperation with partners to ensure that messaging is separated from other data traffic."
Finally, Google has not yet started work on introducing satellite connectivity support for Android 14, but we expect that it will see more detailed planning in a few months.
