With an iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro with at least iOS 16.1 installed, it is possible to use the SOS emergency notification function via satellite. At least, in principle. The function is not yet available in the Netherlands, but that is about to change!
SOS emergency alert via satellite
The SOS emergency notification via satellite function is intended for situations where you have no WiFi and no mobile coverage, but still want to connect with SOS emergency notification. Well, you may not experience that very quickly in the Netherlands because the mobile coverage is relatively good here, but there are still locations where your iPhone suddenly turns out to have no connection anymore.
For example, in places in Limburg, Drenthe and Overijssel in particular, it can happen that you are suddenly completely offline. When you need the emergency services at such a time, it is very nice if you can still connect via satellite with SOS emergency notification. You can also use the satellite connection to share your location via Find My and the connection is also integrated into Crash Detection as standard.
SOS emergency notification via satellite in the Netherlands
The function SOS emergency calling via satellite was initially only available in the United States and Canada. Some time later England, France, Germany and Ireland were added.
Later this month, the function will be expanded to six countries, namely Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and therefore also the Netherlands. These are all popular holiday countries for the Dutch. And since mobile coverage is not equally strong in all these countries, this expansion comes before the holiday period.
Fast communication
Although it takes some time to establish a connection to satellites, once connected, communication will be fast. This is possible because Apple has developed a compression algorithm that makes text messages up to three times smaller. This is also necessary because the bandwidth is relatively low compared to other networks.
When the function is actually available here, you can read on iPhoned exactly how to set it up perfectly. If you don’t want to miss anything, subscribe to our newsletter.