MWC23 – Attendees of the MWC Barcelona trade show here generally couldn’t access satellite services from inside the massive, crowded Fira Gran Via venue. They’d have to go outside, to get a view of the sky, to do so.
But that certainly didn’t stop a wide range of companies from talking about how satellites will impact the cellular industry.
According to Skylo’s Tarun Gupta, there’s a clear reason why satellites are such a hot topic right now: It’s the new phone-to-satellite messaging services that are hitting the market from the likes of Apple, Huawei and Bullitt. Such services – dubbed “direct to device” (D2D) services by those in the satellite industry – promise to allow regular smartphones to connect to satellites hundreds of miles up in the sky.