The development took two years, and now the solution for direct satellite communications for smartphones from the Bullitt Group is ready for the market. The system, called Bullitt Satellite Connect, is used not only for SOS messages but also for normal texting. The prices for the packages of the paid service have already been set, and the first smartphone is coming to the MWC.
Bullitt Satellite Connect consists of hardware and software components. Bullitt and MediaTek have developed the corresponding modem together over the past two years. As a separate component outside of the SoC, it is in principle compatible with various processors. Bullitt Satellite Connect uses existing satellite infrastructure, no new ones need to be put into orbit. The company Skylo, founded in 2017, takes over this part of the implementation. It is still unclear which satellites Bullitt uses exactly, but the company promises global coverage.
To use Bullitt Satellite Connect, you must first install the app and create an account. For the most part, the application looks and works just like any other messenger. There is also the option of making an SOS emergency call. When exchanging messages via satellite radio, it is possible to include your own location. If desired, emojis can also be sent over the airwaves, but the system does not support images or file attachments. From sending to receiving a text message, which can be up to 140 characters long, took between 30 seconds and a minute in the test.
If you send a message via satellite to a smartphone that works in the normal network and does not have the Bullitt app, the text appears as an SMS, accompanied by a note that you have to install the app to reply. If you don’t have a smartphone with a satellite modem, you can use it for free.
The first smartphone with Bullitt Satellite Connect will be the new Moto Defy, which is set to premiere at MWC 2023 in Barcelona at the end of February. Apart from the fact that the processor will come from MediaTek, technical data are not yet certain. Motorola has been lending its own company name to Bullitt for the Defy series of outdoor smartphones for a number of years. Other models are likely to follow.
Emergency notification always goes to Florida or South Africa
If you send an SOS message via Bullitt Satellite Connect, it does not immediately go to the local authorities, but to one of FocusPoint International’s two emergency call centers. The headquarters are in Florida, with a second center in South Africa. Using the reporting form and chat, some data about the nature of the emergency is first requested, and information on how to help yourself may be given, and only in the second step, any help that may be required is requested.
Bullitt Satellite Connect Pricing
Free SOS messages, text messages from 5 euros per month
Prices for the various bookable packages have already been fixed. While SOS messages are initially free for a year, the smallest package for 30 messages per month costs $4.99 or the same amount in euros. The most expensive package costs 29.99.
How many messages you can actually send with the selected account depends on how brief you are. Bullitt doesn’t charge for the number of messages, but for the amount of data, and these are so small that longer messages eat up more volume than shorter ones. According to a spokesman for the company, the figures given can only be achieved with very short texts. Anyone who exhausts the 140 characters will reach the end of the package earlier and may have to top up. Another uncertainty factor: The messages received also burden the quota with their data volume. If you are in a normal cell phone network or in the WLAN, you can communicate with the Bullitt app for free as with other messengers.
The makers of the Bullitt Group emphasize that Satellite Connect should not be an exclusive system for their own devices, but that they are interested in licensing it to other manufacturers. On the one hand, this would significantly increase the potential user base and, on the other hand, the coffers at the Bullitt Group would ring through the license fees. Bullitt Satellite Connect will initially launch in Europe and North America, with Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Latin America to follow in the first half of the year, with other regions later this year.
(sht)
