Apple Expected to Expand Emergency SOS via Satellite to the UK on December 13
Apple could expand the Emergency SOS via Satellite and Find My via satellite functionality to the United Kingdom as soon as next week, according to a source that spoke to MacRumors. Emergency services personnel in the country have been told that calls from the Emergency SOS via Satellite feature will be routed to local emergency services facilities starting on Tuesday, December 13.
Emergency SOS via Satellite launched in the United States and Canada last month, and at the time, Apple said that it would expand to France, Germany, Ireland, and the UK in December. Apple did not provide a specific date, but the December 13 date we've heard from the UK source makes sense. It is not clear if the expansion will also include France, Germany, and Ireland, but it seems likely, and this could also be the day we see iOS 16.2 launch.
Apple's Emergency SOS via Satellite feature is available to all iPhone 14 users running iOS 16.1 in supported countries and it is free to use for two years. It is designed to allow iPhone users to make emergency calls using satellite connectivity outdoors when no cellular or WiFi connection is available.
Satellite connectivity can also be used to update a Find My location without WiFi or cellular connectivity through the Find My app.
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Top Rated Comments
Fortunately they were all NHS staff and the charity they were walking for was the air ambulance, so people in the emergency services went looking for them when they never showed up at the agreed time.
Emergency SOS could have got them all down much quicker that day, and saved them from having to endure as much as they went though.
There is still many areas of the U.K. without a phone signal, and these tend to be the most dangerous areas in bad weather etc.
Was out in one of the most remote bits of Peak District in the middle of last winter at night, unzipped to go for a pee and someone appeared with a head torch!
Same bloody thing happened a few years back when I was bagging some Munros.