Apple today announced that its Emergency SOS via Satellite safety service is now available to customers in the U.S. and Canada. The technology, available on all iPhone 14 models, allows users to send messages to emergency services even outside cellular and Wi-Fi coverage.
Important to us:
From December 2022, Emergency SOS via satellite will also be available in Germany, France, the UK and Ireland.
Emergency SOS over satellite builds on existing features, including Emergency SOS, Emergency Passport, Emergency Contacts and Where's? Share location, and offers the ability to connect to a satellite, enabling sharing of important information with emergency services, family and friends.
This service allows PSAPs to connect to even more users in emergency situations, and requires no additional software or protocols to enable communication. Users are connected directly to emergency call centers equipped to receive text messages, or to attendant centers with Apple-trained emergency specialists who contact emergency call centers that cannot receive text messages on the user's behalf.
How emergency call SOS via satellite works
Emergency SOS via satellite allows users who can't reach emergency services because cellular coverage is unavailable to request help via a satellite connection through an easy-to-use interface on the iPhone.
After answering the questions, the user interface shows where to point the iPhone to connect and sends the first message.
This message includes the answers to the questions, the location, including altitude, the battery status of the iPhone, and the emergency passport if it is enabled.
Technical background
Every model in the iPhone 14 family – iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max – will be able to connect directly to a satellite through a combination of specially designed components and deeply integrated software.
All indications are that Apple will use the satellite service from Globalstar.
Here's how Reuters reports that Apple will provide $450 million for the necessary infrastructure. As a result, the iPhone maker is covering 95 percent of the projected investment costs for new Globalstar satellites.
This Globalstar satellite network is already used by satellite messenger manufacturer SPOT. You can read my detailed Spot-X field test here on the blog.
In it I already noticed that the communication with the Globalstar satellites is slower and tamer than with the Iridium network of Garmin inReach.
Apple has therefore built in a text compression algorithm that reduces the average size of messages by 300 percent, so that the transfer is as fast as possible.
With emergency SOS via satellite, users can send and receive messages in just 15 seconds in good conditions.
With the built-in emergency SOS via satellite demo, you can test the satellite connection on an iPhone by connecting to a real satellite in range without calling emergency services and get familiar with the service.
Share location
In the app "Where is?", you can open the "Me" tab, swipe up to see "My location via satellite", and then tap "Share my location".