Earlier this year Snapdragon Satellite technology was announced by Qualcomm which supports emergency satellite communication systems. This technology is provided on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip that uses the Snapdragon X75 modem.
Today Iridium, which is a Snapdragon Satellite technology partner, announced that they are ending their collaboration with Qualcomm effective December 3, 2023. In an official statement provided, Iridium said that although this technology has been proven to work, there is still no Android smartphone manufacturer that supports the system that exists on iPhone devices and Huawei.
Iridium is now free to partner with any smartphone manufacturer to offer a satellite communication system. Rumors have previously said that satellite communication will be supported on the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip series. Strangely enough, during the Snapdragon Summit event three weeks ago, emergency satellite communication technology was also left untouched for the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.