iPhone SOS-by-satellite service goes live in North America

Apple is using US satellite network provider Globalstar - which has emerged as Rocket Lab's largest single customer - for its new SOS service, for areas with no cellular or Wi-Fi coverage. Photo / Supplied

Apple has gone live today in the US and Canada with its new SOS via satellite service.

The potentially life-saving new feature allows any of the four iPhone 14 models to contact emergency services, and automatically share your location, if cellular networks and Wi-Fi are out of reach (older iPhones don’t have the necessary hardware smarts).

Your battery status and, if enabled, medical ID, are also shared with emergency services.

You also get the option to share your location with a pre-set group of contacts from your address book.

Apple says it has designed and built custom components and software that allow iPhone 14 to connect to a satellite’s unique frequencies without a bulky antenna.

The Emergency SOS interface tells you where to point your phone for the best satellite reception. Apple says you could send and receive a txt in as little as 15 seconds - a snap in the sometimes slow world of satellite comms.

Apple plans to expand the service in France, Germany, Ireland and the UK next month.

There’s no timeline for New Zealand at this point. But along with US mobile provider T-Mobile’s plan to use Elon Musk’s Starlink network of satellites to fill coverage gaps for users of any brand of smartphone from next year under a “celltower in the sky” partnership, it shows the direction the industry’s heading.

Apple said last week that a US$450 million ($746m) investment from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund provided the critical infrastructure that supports Emergency SOS via satellite for iPhone 14 models.

Most of the funding went to Globalstar, a global satellite service provider based in Louisiana which, Apple notes, will soon be upgrading its network.

This is where a Kiwi connection comes in.

In February, Rocket Lab was awarded a US$143m subcontract by MDA (Global Star’s prime contractor) to lead the design and manufacture of 17 spacecraft buses for Globalstar’s new Low Earth Orbit satellites. The Globalstar deal is the Lab’s largest single contract to date for Peter Beck’s firm.