Apple’s announcement of the yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus earlier today contained a lot of interesting little tidbits aside from the phones themselves. We already told you about Apple Pay finally landing in South Korea, effectively ending a near-monopoly that Samsung has in the country in the field of mobile payments.
But there was also another revelation hidden in the news, and this one has to do with satellites. Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite service is expanding to six more countries starting later this month.
Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite
These are Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal. This will double the number of countries in which the satellite-backed emergency communications service is available, as it has 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 only works outside, in open spaces with a clear view of the sky. Performance can be affected by obstructions such as trees or surrounding buildings, and messages sent via this route will naturally take longer to send as they have to travel to space and back.
