Apple To Spend $450M On Satellite Services for iPhone 14's Emergency SOS - PCMag

To enactment the Emergency SOS diagnostic for the iPhone 14, Apple plans connected spending $450 cardinal to assistance grow the outer networking infrastructure crossed the US. 

A bulk of the backing volition spell to Globalstar, the outer communications supplier that’s partnering with Apple to powerfulness the SOS feature. This volition let an iPhone 14 oregon iPhone 14 Pro to link to a Globalstar outer successful orbit to interaction exigency services, adjacent erstwhile the idiosyncratic is disconnected the grid. All the idiosyncratic needs is simply a wide presumption of the sky. 

To amended the outer infrastructure, Apple is moving to grow the crushed stations crossed the state that tin person and nonstop information to the Globalstar outer network. Specifically, Apple is upgrading the crushed stations with caller “high-power antennas” from a US institution called Cobham Satcom.

“These caller antennas were installed successful each Globalstar worldwide crushed stations, including caller crushed stations successful Nevada and Hawaii, arsenic good arsenic existing facilities successful Texas, Alaska, Florida, and Puerto Rico,” the institution said. 

(Apple)

Apple’s announcement besides mentions that upgraded satellites from Globalstar are connected the way. Back successful September, Globalstar published an agreement(Opens successful a caller window) that shows Apple plans connected paying 95% of the backing needed to assistance it motorboat caller satellites. In exchange, Globalstar plans connected allocating “85% of its existent and aboriginal web capacity” for Apple’s services. 

“With Apple’s infrastructure investment, we’ve grown our teams successful California and elsewhere to construct, expand, and upgrade our crushed stations, and we look guardant to the adjacent section successful Globalstar’s lifesaving technology,” Globalstar Executive Chairman Jay Monroe added. 

However, Globalstar is posed to look immoderate contention from SpaceX’s Starlink, which is besides moving connected a outer communications work for phones, including those connected to the T-Mobile network.  

Apple plans connected rolling retired the Emergency SOS diagnostic to iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro users successful the US and Canada aboriginal this month. However, the diagnostic volition lone enactment sending substance messages, which could instrumentality betwixt 15 seconds to a fewer minutes to nonstop each one. The aforesaid feature, which volition beryllium escaped for the archetypal 2 years, tin besides beryllium utilized to stock the iPhone owner's determination via the Find My app.

(Apple)