Apple Plans To Send Data To iPhones Directly Through Satellites

Apple is reportedly working on a satellite technology to send data to iPhones directly, according to a Bloomberg report. The company has even dedicated a research team to develop new ways of beaming data like internet connectivity.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, the team has a dozen engineers from the aerospace, satellite and antenna design industries, and they are aiming to deploy their results within five years. However, the project is still in an early stage and could be abandoned as well.

Communicating without cellular network

The intention behind beaming data to iPhone‌s is to reduce the dependency on wireless carriers for data transmission. If this plan sees the day of light, it would also help in linking the devices together without a traditional network and thus overcome coverage issues.

This means iPhone users would be able to communicate without a cellphone carrier data network. Apple might also explore satellite technology for an improved and more precise location tracking for its devices along with better maps and new features.

A longstanding project

Reportedly, this project has been made a company priority by Apple CEO Tim Cook. The company has also ramped up hiring to add more software and hardware experts in the team.

Another Bloomberg report from 2017 said that Apple hired two Google executives, John Fenwick and Michael Trela, who led Google’s satellite and spacecraft operations.

The purpose of their hiring was unclear back then, but now Bloomberg says that Fenwick and Trela are leading the team behind its satellites and related wireless technology.

I am not sure if the connection level from Apple’s satellite technology would be as fast as the one we get from a ground-based network. However, it could work as a usable form of communication that won’t depend on local infrastructure.

So irrespective of your main network status, iPhone users will always have a fallback option that would ensure that you can always perform less data-intensive operations, such as texting and calling.