Currently in America and Canada and in the future in the UK, Germany, France and Ireland

“Apple” launches emergency service on “iPhone 14” via satellite

“iPhone 14” will communicate with satellites directly without “large antennas.”

From the source

Apple has launched a help request service for iPhone 14 users in the United States and Canada, and plans to launch it in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Ireland in the coming period, where phone users can request help in critical circumstances, via satellite, when it is not available. Telephone network is available.

Walkers, emergency responders, and frequent travelers may be familiar with the world of mobile phones, which provide text messaging and information services anywhere, but today's satellite mobile phones are equipped with large antennas.

And “Apple” says that it wants to create a technology that allows direct communication with satellites, within the current form of “iPhone” phones.

“The work began to find frequencies that work on (iPhone) and are available to work on satellites as well,” says Aaron Mathias, Vice President of Wireless Technology and Environment at Apple.

Then we made the necessary adjustments to the (iPhone) phones, but without adding (antennas).

Matthias added, "(Apple) first created new software that enables the phone to communicate with satellites, and then designed the user experience around that."

Finally, “Apple” invested about $ 450 million with the “Global STA” company, which provides satellite services around the world, in addition to other providers, to support the development of 24 satellites, with low orbits, and moving at a speed of 16 thousand miles, at a higher altitude. from the International Space Station.

This investment is part of Apple's advanced manufacturing fund, which was previously used to produce glass using Corning technology and lasers for face recognition.

During the test with the “iPhone 14”, an attempt was made to call the emergency number (911), and the call was automatically directed to the emergency request known as “SOS” via (satellite receivers), and then the participants in the experiment were asked to fill in own questionnaire.

Apple said that the user of this technology may be in "distress", and therefore the questionnaire helps to collect important information in the shortest possible time.

This information is obtained through the same questions asked by those who answer the emergency number (911).

"When the test was done with emergency message recipients in the field, they told us that in some situations the answers they got from the questionnaire, in addition to the user's location (that is, the experience), could be sufficient for them to make the decision to send assistance.

But this is a lot of information in order for help to reach those who requested it quickly.

And Apple says that the text size of the required information has been reduced to a third of what it was, by passing it to (compressing algorithms).

This allows the satellite to pass messages more efficiently to ground stations around the world.

Once these messages are received, they are sent to local emergency services stations or a center with Apple-trained specialists who can send help.