A source at state-owned telecommunications corporation China Telecom has disputed claims that Huawei has a monopoly on the country’s satellite communications, stating instead that there is a minimum technology threshold to be met to implement satellite communications on mobile phones. The comments to local media outlet IThome came after reports that rival mobile phone brands Xiaomi and Vivo were looking to follow Huawei by deploying satellite communication technology. Still, they were experiencing delays because of alleged Huawei exclusivity. In August, Huawei released the Mate 60 Pro series, the industry’s first smartphone to support satellite calls, which only work with a China Telecom SIM card. An insider at China Telecom pointed out to IThome that such features require a lot of R&D investment to tackle technical problems, such as chip module miniaturization, satellite protocol system optimization, and user terminal management. [IThome, in Chinese]
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