Apple to expand its satellite services with Globalstar

Apple is becoming a satellite communications company, taking a 20% stake in its existing satellite services provider, Globalstar, as part of a much-expanded deal with the latter. The iPhone maker has agreed to put up to $1.1 billion into the satellite company, deepening its ties with the firm.

Apple in space

As a reminder, Globalstar provides the satellite infrastructure that enables life-saving satellite-based Apple services, including Emergency SOS by Satellite, Roadside Assistance via Satellite, Send Location via Satellite and, with iOS 18, Messages via Satellite. In the case of Emergency SOS, the service is already saving lives, including one example when five people were rescued after their fishing boat capsized near Key West, FL. 

These services have been proving themselves across the US this hurricane season. They are also being extended, as the recent introduction of Messages via Satellite shows.

All these services are being provided with existing infrastructure, which, under a current Apple/Globalstar deal, is being deployed to support a growing number of nations. The new deal suggests these services may be extended, as it includes provision of a new satellite constellation.

What is the deal?

Apple is spending its cash to support the deployment of a new satellite constellation and expanded ground infrastructure for those satellites. All of these will be owned and managed by Globalstar, but Apple will gain use of 85% of the company’s network capacity. (Globalstar will be able to use the remaining 15% to support other clients, presumably including enterprise clients seeking to deploy private 5G services in emerging economies, or in support of certain mission-critical applications in the US.)

The deal also sees Apple make payments for services. (Globalstar has previously confirmed Apple’s business accounted for around 48% of its revenue last year.)

Globalstar shared the news in a regulatory filing published just one day after Apple’s financial results call. Apple will also purchase $400 million of Class B shares in the company, which expects its total annual revenue to more than double in the year following the launch of these expanded satellite services.

It’s important to note a report from several months ago from a German publication, which claimed plans exist to launch thousands of satellites across the coming years.

What is the background to the deal

Apple and Globalstar have an existing relationship that supports iPhones in space. The Mac maker announced a $450 million investment in the satellite company in November 2022. That money was also invested in new satellite manufacturing and the launch of new satellites in support of Emergency SOS via Satellite.

On the relationship with GlobalStar, Apple Director for Hardware Engineering Michael Trela explained the complexity of the service to Via Satellite in 2022: “Using these Globalstar satellites wasn’t as simple as connecting to pre-existing cell towers in space. It did require us to develop some custom technologies and optimize the phone and the satellites to ensure we have reliable two-way communications.

 “The Globalstar satellites were only designed to talk to dedicated satellite communications devices, which feature larger, more purpose-built antennas. We started to maximize the iPhone’s capabilities by adding components to intelligently utilize multiple antennas to maximize the signal strength toward the satellite.”

Within that work, Apple developed a customized radio protocol from the ground up and optimized the link between the iPhone and satellite. That system also requires a proprietary system put in place at GlobalStar’s own ground stations. 

How the industry sees satellite connectivity

Satellite industry incumbents, telecoms, and tech companies see satellite communications as an important and necessary next step to bridge the digital divide. The idea is that these systems can connect communities globally, including in places in which the cost of building infrastructure remains too high, or even too risky.

That’s always been the case, of course. But as AI permeates everything and smart tech gets deployed broadly, the strategic and economic value of such services is growing. It’s already widely used across some industries, such as mining and maritime, and is expected to see wider use in smart city development, agriculture, and other areas.

Much of the potential has been opened up from advances in the tech inside Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Relatively cheap to manufacture and launch, LEO satellites are precisely the kind of devices Apple and GlobalStar are putting in space. They are also being integrated into the 5G ecosystem, which is, of course, precisely what Apple’s big investment in the tech will likely turn out to be all about. They provide another layer of network resilience ¸— and another attack surface, too. 

What happens next?

It is telling that in 2022, Trela described iPhone’s support for satellite as, “the first time that anyone has launched or integrated a two-way satellite technology in a mainstream way.”

What that means, obviously, is that the iPhone in your pocket is (to some extent) a satellite phone.

Apple has continued to expand the services and nations into which it provides satellite communications, but it seems unlikely to be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in a tech just to help iPhone owners call emergency services. The company will have much bigger dreams, particularly as it is now involved in development of the 6G standard, which is likely to implement much deeper support for satellite connectivity than the existing standard. 

At least one space expert thinks Apple will choose to widen the network to become a full space communications service — broadly in line with predictions from Bloomberg in 2020. 

Speculation is an uneasy guide, but it isn’t completely unreasonable to imagine an Apple satellite communications network designed in such a way as it becomes more private and secure than those services currently provided by mobile telecoms firms.

That seems an unlikely outcome, in part because competing with iPhone network providers could impact Apple’s business. But it’s at least an opportunity to sign off here with the phrase, “If you want to know where Apple is going, look to the skies.” Because Apple is already there.

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