Apple’s new project involves satellite technology

Apple is reportedly interested in satellite technology and has even hired well-known names in the aerospace industry. However, the iPhone maker’s plan is still in its initial stage and there’s still a chance that the company might decide to abandon it later on.

Apple has hired a dozen engineers from the aerospace industry to work on its secret satellite technology project, Bloomberg reported. The engineers, whose specialty is satellite and antenna design, was given a five-year deadline from planning until the deployment of whatever it is they are working on.

While the report is not that clear on what exactly Apple wants to achieve with this team, there’s a possibility that Apple may want its future iPhones capable of getting its signal directly from a satellite. This move will lessen the company’s dependence on wireless phone companies.

Bloomberg also suggested that Apple might also be developing a technology that will link its devices together even without a traditional network. The team might also be working on improving the precision of its devices’ location tracking feature.

It is not yet known if Apple would want to develop and send into orbit its own network of satellites. Amazon already plans to launch more than 3,000 satellites for its future project.

While a phone capable of getting its signal directly from a satellite network might seem far-fetched, other companies have already been toying with the idea, according to Tech Crunch.

One such company is the former Ubiquitilink now renamed as Lynk. The startup plans to build its own constellation of low-orbit communication satellites that can be used to directly connect to a phone.

However, Bloomberg warned that the industry is littered with failures for similar ideas. Iridium LLC, which was known for its satellite phones, filed for bankruptcy protection in 1999. Another company, Teledesic, also abandoned its internet from the sky project.

“The lessons of prior failures like Iridium, Globalstar and Teledesic are that it’s really hard to find a viable business plan for multibillion-dollar satellite communications projects,” satellite expert Tim Farrar said.

Apple’s team is reportedly headed by aerospace engineers Michael Trela and John Fenwick, The Verge reported. They previously work Skybox Imaging, a company that Google acquired in 2014.