en.Wedoany.com Reported - On June 19, Chinese commercial aerospace company Yuanxin Satellite announced the successful completion of China's first direct satellite call using an unmodified commercial smartphone. During the test, an ordinary commercial handheld terminal was used without any software or hardware modifications or upgrades, and the entire communication link remained stable and smooth, with good voice quality. This marks a key breakthrough for Yuanxin in the verification of direct smartphone-to-satellite communication technology.

This call was completed based on Yuanxin Satellite's direct smartphone-to-satellite communication system. The system is designed for direct communication scenarios between ordinary mobile phone terminals and low-orbit satellites, with the core goal of providing basic communication capabilities to users in areas where terrestrial mobile networks are insufficient or unavailable. Unlike traditional methods requiring dedicated satellite terminals, the direct connection of unmodified commercial smartphones to satellites places greater emphasis on compatibility with the existing smartphone ecosystem and terrestrial mobile communication systems.

Yuanxin's direct smartphone-to-satellite system is equipped with an L-band fully digital phased array antenna. To address issues such as large time-frequency offsets and uplink transmission bottlenecks in space-to-ground communication, Yuanxin Satellite employs a two-stage time-frequency offset compensation scheme combined with dynamic adaptive coding rate adjustment technology to enhance the link stability and voice communication quality between low-orbit satellites and mobile terminals.

On June 9, Yuanxin Satellite's first direct smartphone-to-satellite test satellite was successfully launched into orbit at the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Experimental Zone. This test satellite will conduct verification of key technologies such as direct smartphone-to-satellite application services and integrated space-ground networking, providing a testing foundation for the deep integration of satellite communication with 5G and 6G. From the launch of the test satellite to the successful direct call, Yuanxin completed the transition from an in-orbit verification platform to a business link test in a relatively short period.

Direct smartphone-to-satellite communication is an important direction for integrated space-ground communication. Scenarios such as remote mountainous areas, maritime navigation, desert regions, emergency rescue, and disaster sites often face issues like insufficient terrestrial base station coverage, damaged communication facilities, or temporary congestion. If ordinary smartphones can directly connect to satellites, it will provide a new supplementary means for public communication, industry operations, and emergency support.

However, this achievement remains a technical verification and testing milestone and does not equate to the opening of large-scale public commercial services. For direct smartphone-to-satellite communication to form a stable commercial service, issues such as constellation scale, spectrum resources, terminal compatibility, network handover, pricing models, regulatory approvals, power consumption control, and service continuity still need to be addressed. Particularly between voice, SMS, low-speed data, and future broadband services, different service types impose significantly different requirements on constellation capabilities and network architecture.

For Yuanxin Satellite, achieving a direct satellite call with unmodified commercial smartphones represents an important phased result in the development of its low-orbit satellite communication capabilities. Subsequent progress will depend on the deployment of more test satellites, the range of compatible mobile phone terminals, the degree of coordination with terrestrial operator networks, and continuous communication performance in real-world complex scenarios. As testing deepens, direct smartphone-to-satellite communication is expected to become an important component of China's integrated space-ground communication network construction.

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