July 26, 2022
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Kratos/Constellations) — The world is more connected than ever with 5.3 billion mobile users around the globe and some 14 billion IoT devices. Yet, there are still billions of people who lack the most basic coverage and the vast majority of the Earth’s surface is out of range of a cell tower. Satellites providing direct-to-mobile phone service carry the immediate promise of increasing connectivity without affecting how providers build phones or deliver service.
Lynk Global, headquartered in Virginia, began exploring ways to close the connectivity gap several years ago, investigating the possibility of establishing a two-way connection between a satellite and an unmodified cell phone on the ground. By 2020, the team demonstrated the commercial viability of “cell towers in space” by relaying a text message from a LEO satellite approximately 500km above the earth’s surface to an unaltered Android phone on the Falkland Islands. By the end of the year, Lynk will have a fully operational commercial service.
“Everybody’s conventional wisdom was, ‘You can’t do that,’” Lynk CEO Charles Miller told Constellations. “But when you actually do the hard work…you realize the conventional wisdom is wrong. That’s the source of all great businesses: where conventional wisdom is wrong.”
Read the full article: https://www.kratosdefense.com/constellations/articles/outsmarting-smartphones-with-cell-towers-in-space
