Apple has pledged to invest about $1.5 billion in Globalstar, the company whose satellite network provides communications services to owners of the latest iPhones.

Apple wants more services and capabilities from Globalstar, which will extend its lead as one of two satellite service providers for phone users. Google has partnered with Skylo to provide satellite emergency messages to Pixel 9 series owners as early as August. Other phone industry efforts to offer satellite service have collapsed, and carriers have not progressed beyond successfully testing messages over partner satellite networks.

Currently, the owners iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 Models can, when outside their mobile networks, use Globalstar satellites to reach emergency services Emergency SOS. Recently, Apple has extended this to includes text messages. Apple coordinates these services through a combined network of Globalstar satellites and ground stations and, for now, offers them for free.

Read more: We visited Google for an inside look at the Pixel 9’s Satellite SOS tool

With Apple’s $1.5 billion investment, Globalstar will launch a new constellation of satellites and expand terrestrial infrastructure, which is bundled into a new network of “mobile satellite services,” according to the company. recent SEC filing. It will also increase its global licenses for mobile services as part of an “Extended MSS Network,” and Apple will pay up front for customers to use some of those services.

Globalstar dedicates 85 percent of its network to Apple’s use, the filing said.

Apple declined to comment on the nature of the investment or whether it would result in additional services for iPhone owners. Globalstar did not return a request for comment by the time of publication.

Beyond messaging, the next frontier for satellite services is sending data — for example, through messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal — along with voice calls and video chats.

US carriers announced partnerships with satellite providers years ago to offer customers services beyond terrestrial 4G LTE and 5G networks, though they have yet to activate those services, with one exception: T-Mobile. The company, which first partnered with SpaceX’s Starlink in 2022, we received last-minute federal approval send alerts and provide emergency satellite text messages victims of hurricanes Helene and Milton in October. IN A earnings call in OctoberT-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said that during the hurricanes, the temporary service saw hundreds of thousands of text messages successfully completed to people who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten through.

Verizon, which had signed up with Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite company in 2021, declared a new partnership with AST SpaceMobile back in may. AT&T announced its own partnership with AST SpaceMobile in 2022 and affirmed a commercial agreement between the companies in May; AST SpaceMobile launched the first five commercial satellites in September, which will eventually provide service to carrier customers.

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