Industry sources reveal that regulatory authorities will soon grant BeiDou short message service operating licenses to China Telecom Corporation Limited and China United Network Communications Limited. In November last year, China Mobile, partnering with China Spacetime and leveraging their respective capabilities, pioneered the launch of BeiDou short message services, enabling users to access BeiDou short message communication without changing their SIM cards or phone numbers. China Mobile's trial period lasted one year, meaning it is about to enter the official commercial phase. With the entry of China Telecom and China Unicom, this marks that all three major basic telecommunications operators - China Mobile, China Telecom Corporation Limited, and China United Network Communications Limited - will enter a new stage of commercial operation for "Tiantong + BeiDou" dual-satellite communication, helping China comprehensively build an intelligent "integrated space-ground network" communication landscape.
BeiDou short messages are also known as BeiDou "short message packets." BeiDou "short message packets" represent a unique bidirectional communication technology of China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, allowing users to send and receive short messages via satellite in areas without terrestrial network coverage. BeiDou "short message packet" technology integrates positioning and communication capabilities, transmitting up to 1,000 Chinese characters per transmission (BeiDou-3 standard), and is widely applied in emergency rescue, deep-sea fishing, and other fields.
Currently, China's BeiDou industry has entered a stage of market-oriented, industrialized, and internationalized development, with continuously strengthened product foundations, accelerated expansion of application areas, and increasingly improved industrial ecosystem. The entry of China Telecom Corporation Limited and China United Network Communications Limited will fully leverage existing infrastructure and further enhance the effectiveness of large-scale applications.