Qualcomm, a leader company in semiconductor and telecommunications equipment mostly known for its SoC Snapdragon, is working with makers Honor, Oppo and Xiaomi to introduce satellite-enabled smartphones. The move is part of a global race by leading chipmakers, including MediaTek and Samsung, to bring satellite-based communications to mass-market smartphones, aiming to boost a sluggish mobile market.
MediaTek, which announced its own partnership with Motorola and Bullitt ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, is working to incorporate satellite tech into the modem and the core system on a chip. Huawei became the first company to introduce satellite communications to smartphones in September, linking its Mate 50 with China’s BeiDou navigation satellite system.