Bullitt—a British phone manufacturer best known for licensing the heavy machinery “Caterpillar” brand for ruggedized smartphones—is launching what sounds like a full end-to-end solution that will bring satellite messaging to non-iPhone users. It’s launching the “Bullitt Satellite Connect” service, an app to connect to it called the “Bullitt Satellite Messenger,” and a “Cat S75” smartphone with satellite connectivity. It’s teaming up with Motorola to introduce a second satellite messaging phone, the “Motorola Defy 2,” and a satellite messaging hotspot called the “Motorola Defy Satellite Link.”
But there are some caveats: You’ll need to use the special Bullitt Satellite Messenger app to send a message over satellite, and the message is not SMS. Like some other proprietary messaging services, Bullitt will forward your message over SMS to your recipient’s phone number, so they’ll receive it, but to respond, the person you text will need to download the Bullitt Satellite Messenger app.
The bigger news really is, that real competition is now starting for consumers around satellite communications, so we can expect to see more options and also probably better pricing and services (following the economic logic around the increase in demand as well as volumes of use).
There are already actually similar offerings from Somewear Global Hotspot, Zoleo Satellite Communicator, and others, but the plans and the functions all vary.
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