Apple’s announcement of the yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus earlier today contained a lot of small interesting tidbits aside from the phones themselves. We already told you about Apple Pay finally landing in South Korea, effectively ending a near-monopoly held by Samsung in the country in the mobile payments realm.
But there was another revelation tucked into the news too, and this one has to do with satellites. Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite service will expand to six additional countries starting later this month.
Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite
They are Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Portugal. This will double the number of countries where the satellite-backed emergency communication service is available, as it’s so far been operational in six other countries: the US, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, and the UK. Starting in a few weeks, there will be 12 in total.
Apple wants us to remember that the Emergency SOS via Satellite service works outside only, in open spaces with a clear line of sight to the sky. Performance may be impacted by obstructions such as trees or surrounding buildings, and messages sent using this route will take longer to send, naturally, since they have to go to space and back.
