Globalstar has renewed its services agreement with Apple, including expanding its mobile satellite services network, launching a new satellite constellation and improving ground infrastructure. Under this agreement, Apple will prepay for the services, while Globalstar will retain all revenue from its terrestrial and satellite services and allocate 85% of its network capacity to Apple.Apple will take a 20% stake in the company as part of an expansion of its agreement with iPhone satellite connectivity partner Globalstar. This share is worth $400 million. Globalstar will also receive an upfront payment of $1.1 billion from Apple to improve its satellite infrastructure.
Apple introduced the Emergency SOS feature with the iPhone 14 in 2022, and expanded it with iOS 18 to allow off-grid users to send and receive texts, emojis, and tapbacks via iMessage and SMS in the wild.
Apple plans to charge users for satellite connectivity service at some point, but has not done so yet. Starting with the iPhone 14, the company gave phones free access to satellite features for two years. But last year, iPhone 14 owners were given another year and the free service was extended until November 2025 at the earliest.
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