The iPhone 13 might offer satellite communications. Then again, it might not. Here’s what we know so far.
Most aspects of the iPhone 13 range leaked a long time ago, but one potentially big feature only broke cover recently – very close to the planned September 14 launch of the range. We’re talking about the iPhone 13’s rumored satellite features, something that could be game-changing, inconsequential, or something in between, depending on if or how they play out. Below, we’ll look at exactly what these satellite features might be, and which versions of the rumor – if any – are likely to happen. As widespread as 4G is, and as fast as 5G networks are growing, there are still loads of areas that don’t have any signal on some or even any carriers, and that’s something that the iPhone 13’s satellite features could solve. According to the initial report on the matter, the iPhone 13 range will have a customized Qualcomm X60 baseband modem chip, which would allows calls and texts to be transmitted via a satellite network, rather than over 5G,4G or 3G. This claim came from Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with an excellent track record for Apple information, and they added that Apple is likely to leverage Globalstar’s satellite network to power this. This could be an enormous upgrade, meaning that wherever you are you’d be able to stay in touch with people – and it could be especially useful in emergencies, or for countries that don’t have great cellular coverage. That said, this initial report was light on details – there was no information on whether many apps would be able to tap into this or not, or on how widely it would be offered.
