Globalstar is the LEO satellite operator that never quite died. Once the cautionary tale for anyone betting too hard on bent-pipe LEO voice constellations, it’s now in the middle of a bizarre renaissance, thanks almost entirely to Apple’s need to pretend your iPhone can save you when you hike too far into nowhere. This isn’t strategy, it’s life support with branding.

The constellation itself is old-school: ~24 second-gen birds in orbit, launched between 2010 and 2013, with some lingering first-gen ghosts still limping around. It’s S-band down, L-band up, with gateways doing the heavy lifting, because this isn’t a store-and-forward system. If you’re not in range of a ground station, you might as well be shouting into a can.

The surprise twist came when Apple started using Globalstar for its Emergency SOS feature. Instead of building its own network (which it definitely could have), Apple decided to sprinkle cash on Globalstar: $450 million in CapEx commitments and a 20% equity stake. That buys them exclusive access to 85% of Globalstar’s capacity, which leaves Globalstar technically “independent” but operationally indentured.

Now, there’s a shiny new C-3 constellation in the works, same orbital slot, same basic architecture, just with upgraded payloads and ground segment support. Globalstar’s talking up gateway upgrades and antenna deployments like it’s a revolution, but we’ve all seen this movie: same platform, minor tech upgrades, dressed up with some beamforming lipstick. It’s incremental progress, not a game-changer.

The most recent quarterly numbers show revenue finally ticking up, $67 million for Q2 2025 and a rare appearance of actual profit ($19 million). But let’s not kid ourselves: this is Apple. It’s always been Apple. Globalstar is riding on Cupertino’s pocketbook while pretending to have a multi-pronged global strategy.

The spectrum picture is messy. Globalstar’s access is based on legacy ITU filings and careful FCC maneuvering, but the moment they try to scale or pivot, they’ll be fighting Starlink, Amazon, and every other LEO-slinger that wants a piece of the terrestrial market. SpaceX already filed complaints to kneecap them before they can get cozy in the direct-to-device space. Globalstar may have Apple’s backing, but Elon plays regulatory chess while everyone else is still setting up the board.

Even with a better constellation and ground coverage, they’re still tethered to the gateway model, which limits coverage and scalability. Polar gaps? Still there. Mid-ocean holes? Still yawning. And if they ever lose Apple as a customer, it’s game over, no pivot, no Plan B, just a slow reversion to irrelevance.

So yes, Globalstar is technically alive. Maybe even modestly profitable. But let’s not confuse survival with strategy. This is a satellite network repurposed to be an iPhone feature. It doesn’t matter how many ground stations they light up or how many satellites they refurbish, without Apple, they’re just a zombie constellation blinking quietly above the noise.