Satellite Connectivity and End of Voice Calls

by Rian

My Korean phone number is quite old. The number is as old as it could get, as South Korea began numbering 010 for all mobile numbers. Same goes with my American, still alive, number. I don’t think the American numbering scheme is easily accessible, but some websites do decline my number over it being an internet-based — Korean counterpart would start with 070.

A lot has changed since. The part of the reason why I prefer to keep my lines unchanged is its credibility, but I find this practice to be dysfunctional at best. Communications have moved away from voice and text over cell network to internet-based messengers and emails, where supposedly it is more anonymous than phone numbers. But how is this any different from you, as a person, guaranteeing a phone number? It’s cryptographically guaranteed that encrypted communications are always going to be more secure than unencrypted texts and phone calls. You, as a person, is the sole reason why anyone tries to communicate. The means to reach you, digitized or not, do not matter.

With iPhones 14 and later, the devices are capable of sending messages (iMessage or SMS) via satellites. Satellite connectivity is not free, however, as Apple Support document suggests it only includes free 2 years since activation.* You could easily imagine where my trail of thought went. StarLink offers satellite-based internet service at $50 per month with 50GB data cap, or $165 for unlimited. I doubt iPhone has the hardware or designed with the intention to connect directly to satellite and exclusively to satellite either. But it raises an interesting question. Text messages can replace most of non-realtime communications, formal or not. We are seeing a horizon of possibility where phone numbers may not be needed, much like landlines of the past.

* Currently, Apple keeps extending free satellite connectivity service, as of 2025.

Considering the technical difficulties, I don’t think we would see all-satellite smartphones any time soon. In fact, in an urban area where it is harder to get satellite connectivity, the existing data-only cellular network will no doubt outperform the newcomer. Let us also not forget WiFi roaming, though I don’t see it being the contender as it used to be. Both cellular data and WiFi roaming still are direct threat to old-fashioned voice and text. VoIP is more secure and has objectively better audio quality than regular calls, and, while RCS is keeping SMS on life support, app based messengers are far superior in features.

The irony of this all is we may return to iPod Touch moment — different lines being shipped with different modems. Cellphone numbers are the backbone of the modern day infrastructures; most services require you to put down a mobile number. But that “number” does not necessarily have to be a voice line, let alone a traditional phone number. Just emails have replaced most of faxes and physical mails. Once a VoIP takes majority, no doubt voice line will fall out of fashion. Several articles and theses have already covered phone call anxiety as a new phenomena. I find the anxiety is similar to being anxious sitting next to a telegram machine — a machine so old, I don’t know if my action would offend the transatlantic cable.