Wired
Is the era of mass satellite communication really coming?
On September 6, Huawei announced the launch of a number of new smartphones in the Mate50 series. According to Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Terminal BG, Huawei Mate50 series supports Beidou satellite messaging hardware capabilities. When users are in desert no-man’s land, in distress at sea, earthquake rescue and other environments without ground network signal coverage, they can use this technology to convert text and location. Information is sent out to get in touch with the outside world.
Regarding this technology, which was awarded the title of “Breaking the Sky” before the press conference, Yu Chengdong proudly declared at the press conference: “Huawei Mate50 is the industry’s first mass smartphone that supports Beidou satellite news. The Huawei Mate50 series has launched The era of mass satellite communications.”
However, some voices of doubt in the industry emerged.
“The technology was there 20 years ago!” Many industry insiders said. For product sales, “satellite communication” is indeed a selling point worth mentioning, but what is the innovative value behind combining a technology that existed 20 years ago with a smartphone? How much imagination can it inspire?
No major innovation breakthrough?
“Actually, it’s still a Beidou short message.” After watching the release of Huawei’s Mate50 series products, Zhang Guobin, a senior communications industry expert, said with emotion.
Another satellite industry CEO Huang Xu further said to Sina Technology: “This kind of short message information transmission method was available when the Beidou system was first built in 20 years. Huawei launched this function gimmick than practical value. For most cities People may wear out a mobile phone and will not use this function, after all, this technology is still suitable for a small number of people, and the frequency of use will not be too high.”
Huang Xu believes that when the Beidou navigation system was first developed in China, due to economic and technical constraints, three satellites could not be launched at the same time to form the Beidou navigation satellite system, so only two satellites could be launched first, and then one was launched to complement the Beidou navigation system. system.
In order to determine the position of the first published satellite, so that the second launched satellite can complete the docking with it, the satellite communication function that can send back short messages is set up for the purpose of positioning.
“So Beidou short message users can only send one frame of message per minute, and the message length does not exceed 78 bytes, and does not support the publishing of pictures, videos and other content.”
In his opinion, the short message text of the Beidou system is not set up for sending short messages, so it cannot be regarded as the best carrier for sending short messages and other content. At present, it seems that the innovation of Mate50 mobile phone in satellite communication , can only send text but does not support phone calls, and does not have a major innovation breakthrough.
He revealed that in fact, satellite communication is mainly divided into narrowband communication and broadband communication. Among them, narrowband communication is only suitable for small data transmission such as short messages, and does not support the dissemination of content such as pictures and videos. Although broadband communication can realize the transmission of video, images, etc., the disadvantage is that the transmission antenna required to realize the transmission of these data is relatively large, and it is not suitable for ordinary consumers.
“In some places with poor terrestrial network coverage, video and other content can also be transmitted through portable broadband communication devices, but a broadband communication portable device weighs about 20 kilograms and is not suitable for ordinary consumers.” Huang Xu said .
Communication through broadband satellites works well, but the equipment used to transmit the signal is extremely bulky. Communication is achieved through narrowband satellites and does not support the sending of messages such as videos and pictures. To achieve a good communication experience through satellite communication, it seems that there are still many challenges.
Of course, while the voices of doubt appeared, there were also some different voices.
“The previous satellite communication function mainly served B-end customers, rarely C-end consumers, and had nothing to do with smartphones. Huawei Mate50 has realized satellite communication, although it is not difficult in the professional field, but from the From a commercial point of view, this is a huge change.” A practitioner who has been engaged in commercial satellite application research for a long time told Sina Technology.
Is satellite communication becoming the new outlet?
In fact, whether it is for the purpose of marketing gimmicks, or simply to achieve satellite communication capabilities when there is no terrestrial network. In recent years, the trend of combining smartphones with satellite communications seems to be gaining momentum.
Just a week before the release of Huawei’s Mate50 series, the news that Apple’s iPhone 14 series will use satellite communication technology has spread.
Well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also confirmed in a post, “Apple will definitely use satellite communication technology in the iPhone in the future, but it’s not certain whether it will be used in the iPhone 14.”
In addition, Xingji Times, which has just acquired shares of Meizu, also announced on official channels that Xingji Internet technology will achieve global coverage and multi-terminal interconnection through 5G + low-orbit satellite communication + near-field communication technology. The Xingji Internet mobile phone launched in the future will realize the integration of heaven and earth and unbounded connection.
When mainstream mobile phone manufacturers begin to embrace satellite communication, does this mean that an emerging track of “smartphone + satellite communication” is beginning to emerge quietly?
Huang Xu believes that from the perspective of technical realization, it can be achieved by making 5G, 6G and other communication base stations into near-Earth satellites and launching them into space to form network coverage on the ground, but in engineering practice, currently It is still impossible to install a large number of base stations in the sky to meet the bandwidth requirements of the population on the ground.
As of the end of June 2022, the total number of mobile communication base stations in my country was 10.35 million, and 5G base stations accounted for 17.9%. “If you want to replace the ground communication capabilities achieved by such a large number of communication base stations with communication satellites, this is a very challenging thing.” In his view, for a long time in the future, on the personal consumption side, satellite Communications will all exist in a way that complements terrestrial communications.
In addition, the current satellite communication is often faced with problems such as data uplink. It is still a challenge to help consumers achieve daily communication through satellite communication in the short term.
At this conference, Huawei released the Mate 50 series of mobile phones, all of which are 4G mobile phones. As a company with the most advanced 5G technology, Huawei has once again become the only company selling 4G mobile phones in the 5G era.
Perhaps to avoid embarrassment, at the press conference, Yu Chengdong did not mention too many 5G-related product details, but described too many innovations in photography, satellite communication, and power management.
According to the latest report released by the statistics agency Canalys, in the second quarter of 2022, Samsung and Apple ranked the top two with 21% and 17% of the global market share respectively, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo with 14%, 10% and 10% respectively. 9% market share ranks third, fourth, and fifth. However, for some reason, Huawei, which once surpassed Apple in shipments, has fallen out of the top five.
Behind the release of Mate 50, Zhang Guobin saw, “Mate 50’s imaging system has made a new breakthrough, and it has become its own school and truly has its own imaging brand. In addition, the attempt to support Beidou communication has also further improved the communication function of mobile phones. In terms of power management, the 1% battery emergency mode also breaks the previous practice of mobile phones to solve battery life anxiety.”
Given the fact that 4G communication and 5G communication do not have too obvious differences in consumer business, perhaps Huawei Mate 50 can still win a market.