When that satellite icon pops up in the upper right corner of your iPhone, it means your

cell service may have dropped out, but emergency contact can still be made. It's space that enables it,

and specifically the satellite constellation of Global Star. Apple owns a 20% stake in the company,

and Global Star provides emergency telecom services for Apple

smartphones. Global Star CEO Paul Jacobs sees a lot of hype in the satellite communications

industry right now, especially around broadband, which in turn is raising questions about

the economics. For Global Star, though, the business model is clear.

I think the business model right now is that if you have, if you're a smartphone

manufacturing, you have a large installed base, there's a huge benefit to getting new features

out that cause people to buy a new phone a little bit faster.

So that right there can generate a reasonable amount of economic value.

And the benefit that Global Star brings is that we're running this on 24 satellites today.

So these satellites have a large amount of coverage. And so we're a fairly low-cost way of providing that capability.

We are not today building hundreds or thousands of satellites

and the result in costs, not just of building the constellation,

but continuing to maintain the constellation.

So we're in a different place.

Jacobs took the helmet Global Star in 2023 after running XCOM Labs.

Before that, he was CEO of Qualcomm for almost a decade and chairman of the chipmaker until 2018. So he's seen a few innovation cycles in communications.

On this episode, emergency messaging, the promise of physical AI, and the big fight

for Spectrum. I'm Morgan Brennan, and this is Manifest Space. Joining me now, Paul Jacobs,

the CEO of Global Star, Paul, it's great to speak with you today. Thanks for taking the time.

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