What is Globalstar?
Globalstar Inc. is a US mobile satellite services operator, founded in 1991 and launched in 1999 (filing for bankruptcy in 2002 before restructuring). Its second-generation constellation of 24 LEO satellites at 1,414 km altitude provides coverage from approximately 70°N to 70°S latitude. Unlike Iridium, Globalstar does not use inter-satellite links — signals are relayed via a 'bent pipe' directly to ground gateways, creating coverage gaps over oceans and remote areas far from land-based gateways.
Services
Globalstar provides satellite phone voice and SMS (Globalstar handsets), the SPOT product line (personal tracking and one-way emergency messaging for outdoor adventurers), and SmartOne satellite tracking for industrial IoT applications. Globalstar has historically struggled commercially versus Iridium due to its more limited global coverage (no polar coverage, ocean gaps). Data rates on Globalstar's satellite phone network are modest (9.6–38.4 kbps).
Apple partnership
In 2022, Apple announced that iPhone 14 (and subsequent models) would support Emergency SOS via satellite using a dedicated Globalstar frequency allocation — not the standard Globalstar consumer network. Apple paid Globalstar approximately $450 million (85% of Globalstar's planned capital spending) to deploy additional spectrum and capacity dedicated to Apple's service. This transformed Globalstar from a struggling niche operator into a critical infrastructure supplier for the world's most widely deployed smartphone, providing access to the COSPAS-SARSAT SAR system via iPhone in areas without cellular coverage.