Apple’s spiffy new Emergency SOS via Satellite feature will hit the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models in November, but be limited that the United States and Canada at launch. Still, Apple apparently has ambitious plans to bring the feature to other countries as soon as later this year.
Per MacPrime, Apple has stated that the satellite connectivity feature will come to “other countries this year” with additional countries slated for sometime in 2023.
While details are thin on the ground, Apple has stated that the feature will be free for two years for iPhone 14 buyers. Apple could end up charging users once that two-year window is up, or it could choose to continue offering the feature for free.
The Emergency SOS via Satellite feature enables messaging with emergency services when outside of conventional cellular or Wi-Fi coverage. Once your iPhone has connected to a satellite, it can reach emergency services as needed. Satellite connectivity can also be used to share your location with friends and family via Find My.
Given that it takes some time to establish the connection with the satellites, the iPhone interface will ask users a few preloaded questions while the device is searching for signal.
Apple has also created a compression algorithm that makes text messages three times smaller to make communication faster, since bandwidth is low compared to cellular networks. Satellite connectivity is also integrated by default with Crash Detection.
Apple has state that it plans to spend over $450 million on boosting satellite infrastructure over the coming years, fleshing out a network that’s still being developed.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.