Starting in November, US and Canadian iPhone 14 users will be able to rely on their smartphones to call for help in all situations, especially when the device is not covered by a cellular or Wi-Fi network. In this case, after asking important questions to assess the condition of the iPhone trying user, pick up the satellite signal. All of this will be handled by specially trained Apple employees, who will then notify emergency services.
The service is free for two years; Apple hasn’t said what it will cost after that. The manufacturer didn’t build its own set of satellites (in its deep pockets, it’s never been acquired), but it called Globalstar. The American company announced that in 2020, it will work with “”. A potential customer “, has Confident Yesterday it was Apple.
A sealed agreement between the two companies stipulates that 85% of Globalstar’s network capacity is reserved for Apple. Apple will pay 95% of the new satellites and associated costs. In other words, it is Almost As Cupertino presented himself A constellation of satellites ! However, compared to Starling’s network, Globalstar’s network looks very simple: at the latest news, the first has 85 satellites in low orbit, the second about 3,000.
It’s unclear whether Apple intends to roll out the service beyond the first two announced countries, but Globalstar isn’t quite enough. It was in this context that Elon Musk – the boss of SpaceX, and therefore its subsidiary Starlink – announced on Twitter that he had held conversations ” is reassuring With Apple on Starlink connectivity.
We have had some promising conversations with Apple about Starlink connectivity. iPhone group OBV super smart.
Of course, if the phone software and hardware were completely cell-tower emulating Starlink versus space-based signals, it would work better to close the connection to the phone from space.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 8, 2022
We’d be wary of the hypothetical billionaire’s grandiose claims, but a deal could make sense in light of Starling’s deal with T-Mobile. Announced at the end of August : Subscribers of the operator can connect to the signal of Starlink satellites to make calls, send SMS and use some data. For its part, the previous dayevent From Apple, Huawei released satellite connectivity functionality For the new Mate 50 range. The smartphones connect to the Chinese BeiDou satellite network.