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iOS 18: Send Messages Without a Wi-Fi or Cellular Connection
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This is false.
Satellite service is not "by definition" worldwide. Physics alone means that a satellite on the other side of the globe in geosynchronous orbit cannot communicate with a ground station as it does not have line of sight. It takes a constellation of satellites to maintain complete global coverage. The number of which is dependent on numerous factors including frequency, altitude of the satellite, orbital pattern, and the robustness of the ground station.
If you're looking for a simplistic real world example, satellite radio would be a good one. The coverage is limited by the positioning of the satellites over the Western hemisphere. You can't receive these radio signals in the Eastern hemisphere, in the Arctic areas of Canada, or past the Southern tip of Mexico.
It's simply not worldwide because it's satellite.
Not necessarily. Satellites can be (and often are) positioned to cover specific geographic areas.
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Probable not the best way to let your wife know you're pulling into the driveway, but wow, Apple, it's going to save lots of lives.
Seems unlikely due to cost, bandwidth, capacity, and latency issues. Satellite usage will no doubt increase in the coming years and the tech will continue to advance but I think it will be quite some time, if it ever happens, before ALL cell service is handled by satellite.
I was at a music festival a few weeks ago, and cell service was spotty at best. I airplane moded my phone a few times until it gave up on cell connectivity and went to SOS mode. I was able to get a few messages out via satellite before the phone connected back to AT&T. It was a game-changer of a feature, and I can see it being a lifesaver during a natural disaster.
I’m fairly sure you could have a single geo-stationary satellite that is not available worldwide. If only the world was flat.
The service uses the Globalstar LEO (Low Earth Orbit) network, so there are no particular satellites assigned to the US or Canada. The more likely reason is that they have only obtained permission from the relevant agencies in US and Canada to operate this service. And, yes, the satellites do indeed limit services over regions of the world where they do not have legal permission to operate. This is a requirement of international treaties that regulate radio spectrum and its use and has been a thing for several decades in the LEO industry.
Edited to add: Although it IS true that the bent pipe architecture Globalstar uses requires ground stations in the same landmass as the subscriber terminals. Same for Starlink until recently. But most countries where Globalstar is licensed to operate already have those ground stations.
Like many other such features that apple offers that require regulatory approval (e.g, the recent hearing aid feature in AirPods) they just prioritize by market. This sort of regulatory stuff is an amazing hassle to go through, so no surprise.
Note that apple invested in Globalstar to the tune of half a billion dollars so they are probably Globalstar’s second biggest customer behind the US gov. (Although is is possible that there is some B2B play I am unaware of that is actually the same scale. E.g., shippping)
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Maybe. But I kind of think it is the opposite. Satellite service have nowhere near the capacity of terrestrial radio networks (think frequency reuse). In fact, both Globalstar and Iridium both went Chapter 11 in early part of century due to the wide and relatively cheap adoption of conventional cellular during the ‘90s. (Although the high cost of launch services did not help)
Starlink is a recent example of this. Good for remote areas (I have one at my place in MT), but if you are in a city they don’t have enough capacity and (mostly) offer a lower QoS than cable or fiber. Usually more expensive in the urban/suburban space also.
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Don’t get too excited about this. I happened to get my 16 Pro the Friday before leaving for a backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I tried numerous times throughout the weekend to send messages from the tops of mountains, and while the UI is very cool, I spent up to 10 minutes standing there like an idiot slowly spinning to maintain the satellite connection while that little blue bar slowly crept across the screen, only for it to fail to send. I got one message out the whole weekend, and received one response, to which I couldn’t even successfully send a “thumbs up” reaction…
Depends who owns the birds right? Satellites are typically in a stationary orbit and hence only cover a certain area. Satellites operating over North America may not be run by the same companies having satellites over Europe. Apple may currently only have contracts with North American satellite service providers for this texting service.
Maybe, I would think they are accounting for it already in the base cost of the phone itself. And given that it is also a safety issue, it might not go over well if they say, welp, you didn't pay the extra $1.95/mo so it sucks to be you stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Actually there are now at least an order of magnitude more satellites in low earth orbit
. (Iridium - 82, Globalstar - ~25, Starlink - ~6500 plus a few more minor operators (Orbcom still around?) in LEO versus about 580 in GEO)Apple uses Globalstar which, although a NA company, offers global service where regulatory approval has been obtained.
Although it IS true that the bent pipe architecture Globalstar uses (vs the inter-satellite links used in Iridium and now somewhat Starlink) requires ground stations in the same landmass as the subscriber terminals.
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Emergency SOS via satellite is a safety issue but simply sending texts via satellite (the primary focus of the article) is not. It's possible Apple would eventually start charging for the Messages by satellite service but not the Emergency SOS via satellite service. What they choose to charge for, if either, will depend on what competitors do and/or what governments may require.
I think you misunderstood. In California the service doesn't use satellite but seagulls. There must not have been a sufficient number flying overhead at the time to carry your messages.
Edit: I'm laughing (seriously {pun intended}) at the random downvote. No sense of humor? I know my humor isn't for everyone, but downvoting a harmless joke is rather...interesting.
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Anyone know if this is available without a cellular plan? Like for a kid that uses an iPhone at home on wifi for texting, then can also use the satellite iMessage while on the go?
As a St. Ives (Cornwall) Lad I left for city life plus when I was a teenager signal for mobiles was very bad! Maybe next time I’m down I’ll get it to work via satellite 🙂🙂
My love for the iPhone 13 mini and my love for hiking where I rarely have a signal.
Thank God, I've never needed to make a call or message while out hiking, but I do think about it from time to time. I think this one feature may be what gets me to finally upgrade - I mean downgrade 🤣.
Thank God, I've never needed to make a call or message while out hiking, but I do think about it from time to time. I think this one feature may be what gets me to finally upgrade - I mean downgrade 🤣.
For location sharing I have to roam onto a network I can’t use so that’s easy then cut off WiFi then usually the icon appears in the top right corner but never able to txt only location
Cool down. As mentioned above, what I meant is Apple uses Globalstar LEO constellation.
Here's their coverage map:
So yeah, unless I'm currently roaming in Siberia, Greenland or India (spoiler alert: I'm not), I'm talking worldwide coverage, and Apple has no particular reason to restrict it to US-only.
Actually, what I don't know is : has Apple geolocked the functionality to specific GS satellites hovering over NA, or are they simply using the Region set in your profile & billing account to allow this functionality?
i.e: can an American iPhone owner send Satellite SMS if they are roaming off the coast of Australia currently?