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Apple's Emergency SOS via Satellite Feature Saves Family Caught in Maui Wildfires
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This is an amazing story and I hope this kind of functionality becomes common in personal electronic devices.
I do think the emergency service should be free at the time of contact, but billed (fairly, not for profit, but for actual cost) later. I don't like the idea of paying for a subscription for something you might never use. Also, I suspect that using an emergency satellite system might whet the appetite of consumers for routine satellite text communication, for instance so they can text their loved ones if they are OK. I have no problem charging a subscription fee for that.
I know companies are expecting to make money from their satellite systems and that's fine. However, at the end of the day they could set up an electronic relay directly to some government emergency satellite call center rather than using their own customer system. Also, the companies don't own the airwaves - the public leases its use (frequencies) to them. That gives the public leverage. I believe we should use it.
I do think the emergency service should be free at the time of contact, but billed (fairly, not for profit, but for actual cost) later. I don't like the idea of paying for a subscription for something you might never use. Also, I suspect that using an emergency satellite system might whet the appetite of consumers for routine satellite text communication, for instance so they can text their loved ones if they are OK. I have no problem charging a subscription fee for that.
I know companies are expecting to make money from their satellite systems and that's fine. However, at the end of the day they could set up an electronic relay directly to some government emergency satellite call center rather than using their own customer system. Also, the companies don't own the airwaves - the public leases its use (frequencies) to them. That gives the public leverage. I believe we should use it.
I wonder how the satellite service is set. If it also carries calls, just not on the iPhone, expanding the current FCC requirement that all phones that can get a signal, even if they have no active service, can dial 911 would mean simply extending that to satellite service providers would be within FCC or Congress to mandate free connection.
Yea, bundling with AppleCare+ would be one way, or simply include it for free with everyone iPhone and raise the price to cover anticipated costs. The can see what price hike that best covers the costs based on ownership duration. They could even spread the costs globally to lessen the price hit.
IIRC the US does not have a blanket duty to assist law.
Not true, any phone that can connect to a tower can call 911, active service or not. That was what, a while ago, enabled theses "emergency call phones" that could "call 911, no subscription needed" and preyed on people who didn't know any phone could do that.
Same in the US. If you transfer service on an iPhone the old one displays the signal strength and SOS above it.
Calling 911 is easy, the infrastructure behind it is complex. It's a good model but expanding it to include satellite texts would not be that easy.
Apple has a lot of data on iPhone retention times and surely can get a good idea of how much to add to the costs of an iPhone to not lose money on providing the service for "free."
Anyone with a phone pays an e911 fee as part of the bill, subsidizing anyone without service; which is good.
Not necessarily as if you can get cell service, the satellite option is not there. People aren't suddenly going to use the satellite and the % that are out of tower connectivity and have a real emergency is likely not to be that big even if everyone has a satellite capable phone.
The real challenge, IMHO, is a situation where 911 gets overloaded and you wind up on hold. Having a way for the phone to recognize that and switch to satellite, or simply allow texting to 911 via cellular in such situations, could be a useful feature.
Totally agree. Also interested to see how they navigate.
It’s an opportunity to do the right thing and add it to the experience of an iPhone (differentiator). Maybe it’s a Pro-only feature. But directly charging for it, at this point, would not be a good look for the $3T company. But doing so is partly how they got to the Ts. So… Stay tuned. 🤪
Would you expect taxpayers to pay Apple to make the service free? Would you expect the government to force Apple to make it free on Apple’s own dime? People toss the word ‘free’ around pretty loosely. Somebody has to pay.
Yes, the taxpayers would would pay, just like we do for emeregncy services in general, but I would imagine any government emergency call center would serve people using any device enabled with satellite communications. Currently the government monitors the old-style personal locator beacons, so why not something similar for satellite SOS?
Name a free emergency Satellite service that offers realtime communication like this? ALL car emergency services cost money, Inreach same, Spot same. The only free service requires you to buy an expensive PLB beacon. Funny to see entitled people demand free services that really means others pay the costs.
welp, looks like i'm forcing myself to break my 3 year upgrade cycle. this SOS feature is a bigger update than oled/5g/facceID.
Yea.. in the US of A — that driver will end up suing your ass for that))) Even if you did save their life
You think the load on the system would be hundreds of millions? I think nobody except apple and few others knows what the current load is and what the projections are.
Again thanks like thanking 9-11 services for connecting me to the fire or police department
I feel you, it's a regular thing with us(people). I just watched "The Looming Tower" and it gave me a similar, angry and disappointed aftertaste.
Giving two made up scenarios as an argument makes little sense as a reason for Apple to provide this for free. If you're in the US look at your cell bill, there is a fee for E911 service. Again it's amusing and sad that the attitude of using OPM, others people's money, is not important in demanding free stuff.
Think a small town and island emergency services were overwhelmed by this fast moving disaster, nah Bad Apple
Was the delay with the SOS service, or was it with the overwhelmed emergency services?
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Or I could see them pulling something like including it with the newest devices only for "free"
We give Apple so much crap. Which is sometimes warranted. But sometimes you need to give credit to where credit is due. This is amazing, great work Apple and the first responders/emergency service providers
Remember that satellite communication relies on a clear view of the sky so all that dense smoke might be slowing down the pace of communication. In the keynote Apple said they created relay centers for communications so you may be correct that the service will improve over time.
The correct answer is we don't know where the delay was, or if there was one. The post could have been edited deleting initial messages from Apple emergency response center etc.
Nobody (probably)on this board knows why it took 19 minutes.
Someone has to pay the bills, so it can't be indefinite. After the 2 year included with a new phone, it could prompt the user to sign up for a 1 year membership when they attempt to use the emergency feature. Denying someone whose life is in danger access to available help would be like one phone company denying access to another's nearby tower for an SOS call that could save a life just because they're not a subscriber to their plan. As long as it's not extortion pricing, I think that a "By using this feature you agree to a 1 year Emergency Satellite" plan is perfectly reasonable.
One can literally put quotation marks around “free” in order to point towards the fact that everything costs money and it just isn’t a direct charge and yet someone will always crop up to go “erm achtually 🤓👆 things cost money!”
It's very obvious once you're in a remote place with no cell service and try to make a call. You can't miss it.
For the sake of better odds it could even be a disclaimer that by using this feature you automatically consent to being charged this membership price. Of course this way — who's going to pay for it up front, when they can hope to get away without needing to use it?