Lynk, formerly known as Ubiquitilink, is a call-service start-up that was founded a few years ago but shot to popularity recently. In 2020, it demonstrated how a satellite could send SMS messages with the help of a standard smartphone. They accomplished the challenge without any need for fancy GPS locators and antennas made for satellite phones.
The company has taken another massive step in this respect by showcasing a two-way link through its recently launched fifth satellite known as Shannon. The development can significantly contribute to Satellite Phone Market, and the phone was proved to be working in several areas like America, the U.K., and the Bahamas.
Previous works of the company have successfully shown that typical smartphones can be used to bind a standard SMS text message off a low-earth orbiting satellite.
Finally, the company achieved two-way communication that might be utilised for phone calls rather than only sending texts in an emergency. However, for now, it will only be in the form of text or meta-data, not phone calls. There is hope that faster data rates will be enabled in the future as the company fleshes out a constellation of satellites. But for now, having any service and connection to a satellite at all is far superior to having none.
This is particularly true for far-off locations such as the Bahamas and the Central African Republic, which might now provide services to their vast, sparsely populated areas as well. Lynk's business strategy lets carriers charge whatever they want for the service, with the company taking a part of the revenue. The proposed service is similar to current cell phone networks in that messages can be transmitted right away if a satellite is overhead or wait in an outbox until they come into a coverage area.
Lynk has stressed that its services are still different from other cell phone network providers as their product is not the end-user but its customers. Thus, they have no interest in collecting data of anyone who would be using their services apart from the critical information needed for emergency communications like 911 messages.
To get to this stage, the team had to overcome various technical challenges, including atmospheric Doppler shifts and noise, which led some experts to assume the entire system was impossible to achieve. Now that the technology has received attention and positive feedback, the company will become the first option for people located in remote places.
