With an iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro with at least iOS 16.1, it is possible to use the SOS emergency notification function via satellite. At least in principle. The job is not yet available in the Netherlands, but that is about to change!
Read on after the announcement.
SOS emergency alert via satellite
The satellite SOS emergency function is designed for situations when there is no Wi-Fi and no mobile coverage, but you still want to call the SOS emergency service. Well, you may not experience it so quickly in the Netherlands because the mobile coverage here is relatively good, but there are still locations where it suddenly turns out that your iPhone is not connecting to it anymore.
For example, in places in Limburg, Drenthe and Overijssel in particular, you can suddenly be completely offline. When you need emergency services at such time, it is very good if you can still satellite call with SOS emergency notification. You can also use a satellite connection to share your location via Find My and the connection is also integrated into Crash Detection as standard.
SOS emergency notification via satellite in the Netherlands
the job SOS emergency calls via satellite were initially available only in the United States and Canada. Later England, France, Germany and Ireland were added.
Later this month, the functionality will be expanded to six countries, namely Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and therefore the Netherlands as well. These are all popular holiday countries for the Dutch. Since mobile coverage is not equally strong in all of these countries, this expansion comes before the holiday period.
Fast communication
Although it takes some time to establish a satellite connection, once connected, the connection is fast. This is possible because Apple has developed a compression algorithm that makes text messages three times smaller. This is also necessary because the bandwidth is relatively low compared to other networks.
When the function is already available here, you can read on I called Exactly how to set it up perfectly. If you don’t want to miss anything, sign up for our newsletter.
