In an effort to spur growth, Globalstar GSAT -5.44%↓ this week appointed former Qualcomm chief executive officer Paul Jacobs as its CEO. Jacobs, son of Qualcomm QCOM -0.28%↓ founder Irwin, takes over at a time when the company currently offers a satellite-based Emergency SOS for the new Apple AAPL 1.73%↑ iPhone models.
The phone-to-satellite market that Globalstar is pursuing is growing, with such companies as SpaceX involved. The company, which offers SPOT GPS messages via its low-Earth orbit satellite constellation, also has a large IoT hardware and software products business for tracking and monitoring assets—to include cloud-based telematics solutions.
The company’s involvement with Apple features the satellite-based Emergency SOS service, upgraded GPS and car crash detection. Other companies have planned emergency services such as the T-Mobile TMUS 0.52%↑ and SpaceX partnership that offers an end to coverage “dead zones.”
Since the announcement of Globalstar being used as the service provider for Apple’s SoS service, there have been a number of enhancements, including additional satellites launched and additional ground stations deployed. These enhancements indicate that the Globalstar signals will become available in more locations around the globe and potentially from more satellites. According to Reuters, Apple is investing $450 million toward satellite infrastructure, with most of that investment going to Globalstar.
In conjunction with Jacobs’ appointment, Globalstar has also entered into a “perpetual licensing agreement” for access to certain key XCOM technologies and personnel, the company said. The license, which will cost Globalstar 60 million shares, covers a number of XCOM’s technologies for wireless spectrum innovations, the company said.
