Apple Reportedly Plans to Expand iPhone 14's Satellite Feature to More Countries

[JippaLippa]

Considering we're at least 5 years late to the US party, in my country, I wouldn't expect any coverage here in pizza land until 2027.
That said I'm pleased to see Italy has shortened the tech-gap with the US in recent years; we used to be light years behind, now we're just a few centuries late.
There has been an immense strenghtening of the internet grid for example, and the stereotype (Italy has **** internet) is gladly not valid anymore.

 

[mck88]

I believe they are only availing the service to the NA buyers/users of iPhone however it should work if you travel with your phone to other locations in the world. The problem is not a technical problem but rather a series of procedural arrangements to be made in each country. When your iPhone signals for emergency relief the backend operations Apple is putting in place need to know who to call in the locale that you're in. Considering each country around the world will have their equivalent of 911 etc you can see how this will take some time to truly globalize. Hope this helps.

 

[one more]

A useful feature for a small number of people, no doubt, but not something about 99% of regular iPhone users would ever need, IMO.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

MacRumors should also reach out to Apple to find out how much emergency satellite messaging is going to cost when the 2 year free trial period expires. Inquiring minds want to know...

Probably just roll it into Apple One.

 

[MrRom92]

does this mean the feature is only available to users who are from the US? Or that the feature will only WORK in the US?

 

[unregbaron]

Just by the numbers of people with iPhones, there will be a percentage of iPhone owners who think this service already exists on their phone.

 

[bodonnell202]

MacRumors should also reach out to Apple to find out how much emergency satellite messaging is going to cost when the 2 year free trial period expires. Inquiring minds want to know...

Currently a basic "Safety Plan" for a Garmin inReach costs $20/month in Canada. Expect Apple's prices to be in the same ballpark.

 

[NMBob]

This will be great. CIA agents will be able to pick up cheap used iPhones at a pawn shop, turn the feature on, throw the phone into a terrorist vehicle and call in an air strike. FBI too! ...They probably already have that kind of stuff, so the iPhone feature won't be useful to them.

 

[bodonnell202]

Die


I think it was iJustine who mentioned that she pays 80 USD for a subscription

There are different tiers - she pays so she can send texts to friends and family when out of cell service range and a plan that covers that costs more than a basic safety plan.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

well duh … apple is marketing this as one of their flagship features LOL

To be fair, though, Apple Pay is also a flagship feature of theirs.

 

[Shreducator]

In other news water is wet.

 

[DaveMcM76]

Can’t wait for this to come to the UK. I‘m up in the Scottish Highlands and do a lot of hill walking in places where a phone signal is a rarity so this would be a fantastic addition for safety. Would even be useful just for a vehicle breakdown as there are a lot of tiny roads through the hills where a phone signal simply doesn’t exist.

 

[TechieGeek]

the journalist who wrote this article

 

[TechieGeek]

Next article will be “Apple reportedly plans to add A16 Bionic to upcoming iPads”

 

[kenni417]

To be fair, though, Apple Pay is also a flagship feature of theirs.

touchè , i think there’s still a handful of countries that still do not support apple pay

 

[AppleUK1]

I'm not really that fussed to be honest. Hard to be in a remote stop in England where you are many hours from civilisation.
I'm not one to go hiking up mountains so car crash detection for me will be more useful

 

[MLVC]

Considering we're at least 5 years late to the US party, in my country, I wouldn't expect any coverage here in pizza land until 2027.
That said I'm pleased to see Italy has shortened the tech-gap with the US in recent years; we used to be light years behind, now we're just a few centuries late.
There has been an immense strenghtening of the internet grid for example, and the stereotype (Italy has **** internet) is gladly not valid anymore.

Oh happy to hear that. Going to Tuscany in two weeks time for the first time since the pandemic (was a yearly thing) and it's always been bit of a disaster outside of the big cities. Don't even mention the wifi offered in holiday rentals, just horrible.

I live in the Netherlands, there is hardly a place without coverage here, but then again it's densely populated so bound to be.

 

[citysnaps]

this should be a global thing

I suspect it will be as Apple recently reserved 85% of Globalstar's satellite network capacity, becoming Globalstar's largest customer. Apple will also fund 95% of costs of Globalstar's next generation satellites.

I wouldn't be shocked if Apple acquires Globalstar in the future.

Clearly there's more to come on this partnership. Stay tuned.

 

[jimbobb24]

The network will collapse and satellites will fall from the sky Friday as everyone uses the satellite to send their friends their location. It will be the biggest hit on the satellites in history.

 

[AppleFan1998]

This would be nice at Mt. Everest or any far off place for adventuring.

 

[mdekker]

I imagine the rollout is more dependent on relay stations. Just because you can connect to a satellite anywhere on the globe, in theory, that doesn't mean your message has a meaningful place to go to get you help.

Why would that be a problem? As soon as your signal reaches the satellite your signal could be send to anywhere around the world. Guess there would be one relay station for the whole world in some low cost country like India. You can as easily call 911 from India as you do from the US or 112 as you do from Europe.

 

[nutmac]

Apple announced that the feature will be a paid service after 2 years. The satellite SOS is the sort of feature you (hopefully) won't use, but a life saver when you need it. Most people would not want to pay a separate subscription, even if it's very cheap.

My preference is for the feature to be rolled into iCloud+ and/or Apple One subscription, but also offered as pay-per-incident feature.

 

[mdekker]

I can imagine it would make more sense to have this feature available in a country where mobile network coverage is not 100%. Here in The Netherlands the feature is less important as we have nearly 100% coverage. I don't think anyone here is willing to pay the extra for such a service.

 

[mck88]

Why would that be a problem? As soon as your signal reaches the satellite your signal could be send to anywhere around the world. Guess there would be one relay station for the whole world in some low cost country like India. You can as easily call 911 from India as you do from the US or 112 as you do from Europe.

Its not about connecting the call to 911 from India, its about being able to do something about the call itself. What will US 911 do for you if you are in an emergency in India and call is connected to them... the problem statement is to have a global call/response structure that connects the subscriber to the right emergency response team/provider. Setting that organization will take some time and hence the staged rollout.

 

[calstanford]

Beyond pathetic a global satellite service works within the confines of the US only. The ****?!