The iPhone SOS is free. Well for two years. Who knows if it will go to a subscription or stay free after that.
Believe it or not, the other satellite communicators (Garmin Inreach and SPOT) charge a subscription even for emergency use. If you had an Inreach or SPOT but didn’t have service activated on it you would be unable to use SOS at all.
Part of why it’s not free is that the satellite networks are privately owned (Iridium and Globalstar) and they want money. If you want it to be free to the public, you’re gonna have to get your politicians to agree to spending money on airtime for the people. Funny enough, the US government uses Iridium a lot for defense and other government work, not sure about Globalstar, but I’m sure it’s already a lot of money but it’s not just for SOS but also satellite phone calls.
But the other type of SOS device, the personal locator beacon or PLB, transmit distress signals that get picked up by satellites for free, there is no service cost. The difference with PLBs is that they’re strictly one way transmission, you can’t for instance say the nature of the emergency, you just turn it on and the rescuers go to your GPS coordinates. Satellite communicators are two-way devices and have that benefit that you can communicate with the rescuers.
So really the government technically picks up the tab for PLB devices, but not satellite communicator devices. You just have to buy a PLB which only has one function (SOS), oh and it’s a one time use device, once you use it for SOS you throw it away or pay to get it refurbished.
