You will never be truly disconnected again if you have a iPhone 14 Where iPhone 14 Pro. Whispered for years, satellite connection is now possible with Apple’s latest smartphone, but only in certain emergency situations.
Launched in November in the United States, the feature satellite emergency SOS it is also available in France, as well as in Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom, from Tuesday, December 13. It will make it possible to contact the emergency services, even when there is no longer a cellular or Wi-Fi network. And this, for metropolitan France, Corsica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin (French part), Saint Barthélemy and Saint -Pierre- et-Miquelon.
“When it’s an emergency and you’re far from any connection, it can quickly become a problem,” says Maxime Veron, Apple’s senior director of iPhone product marketing. “If you cannot contact 112 (European emergency number, editor’s note) or emergency numbers such as 15 and 18, there is no solution. Now we have managed to miniaturize an antenna on our latest iPhone 14 to communicate with the satellites and thus join the rescue services. .”
Simple and stable use.
Apple has done everything possible to make it easier to use. In case of an accident, incident, if you get lost in a white area, in the middle of the forest or in the mountains, then it is possible to ask for help via satellite. By dialing 112 (this will soon work with French emergency numbers when the iOS 16.2 update rolls out), you’re typically switched to the best answering operator in your area. If none of them are available, there is no solution.
With the satellite antenna built into the iPhone 14, when the connection is not possible, the phone offers to send an SMS via satellite. Then it is necessary to search, iPhone in hand, for the position of the closest one (24 satellites revolve around the Earth at almost 25,000 km/h and 1,300 km above us).
“It’s quite a challenge, very different from connecting to a fixed cell tower,” recalls Arun Mathias, in charge of wireless technologies and its ecosystem at Apple. “Normally, satellite dishes stick out of a phone. We also had to do everything possible to find frequencies that have wide coverage, as well as design the software to communicate wirelessly with the satellite, in a stable way.”
On the screen, and by means of vibration, you will be able to correctly orient the device. It is necessary to be in a place as open as possible and obviously in the fresh air, away from a wall that could interfere with the satellite connection. If it’s no longer in the field, the iPhone alerts you to the imminent arrival of another satellite and you just have to turn in its direction.
Once communication with the satellite has been established, a relay center receives the SMS and will transcribe the reported information by contacting the French emergency services that will be called to intervene (in France, these services are not equipped to receive SMS directly). Apple explains that it has worked to minimize the weight of messages sent to French-speaking interlocutors, a matter of cost and transmission speed as well. “It is a compression model created by Apple so that the weight is reduced by up to a third of its size”, explains Arun Mathias. “So that’s a third of the time needed and the bandwidth used to send.”
To achieve this, Apple has opted for the simplest and most intuitive also for the user. It all starts with a questionnaire intended to find out the situation (loss, fire, accident, etc.), the condition of the victim, if the user wants to notify their pre-recorded emergency contacts on their phone… This is done through of a questionnaire. Once completed, it is sent to the rescue center together with your medical file already included in your iPhone and which is rather recommended to be completed well in advance.
Your interlocutor sends you via iMessage (Apple SMS technology) then requests additional information to refine the request and then contacts the appropriate emergency service (fire, police, paramedics, paramedics, etc.).
It is also possible to notify your loved ones by sending your precise location to those with whom you usually share your position in the Locate application. They will also be able to find it this way with high precision (less than 10m error). This is possible thanks to the addition of GPS bands (dual band L1/L5). A report of the exchange with the emergency services can also be sent to your loved ones to reassure them.
Three cases of rescue thanks to SOS by satellite
The emergency SOS has already proven its effectiveness in the United States with boaters rescued from their disabled boat off the Keys (Florida), man rescued in alaska after getting lost on a snowmobile over the Arctic Circle or even hikers who were able to call the fire department after a forest fire in Big Sur (California) that had destroyed mobile antennas.
So that the user is not helpless in a critical situation and knows how to correctly use the emergency SOS via satellite, the Apple brand has provided a demo on the iPhone 14. By going to Settings > Emergency call, it is possible to put the device in SOS mode (without mobile connection or Wi-Fi) and simulate a connection attempt via satellite, with the same process until the emergency call… which obviously will not move.
If the main purpose of emergency SOS is to be present and offer a connection in case of trouble, this novelty could also prove very useful for hikers, campers and other outdoor travel enthusiasts in places often without a mobile connection. Because, at any time, they can automatically update their position and share it thanks to the satellite connection, without the need to contact the emergency services for it.
“Connecting iPhone to communication satellites is just one of the really important parts of the user experience,” adds Maxime Veron. “Security professionals need to be aware of this too. It is often fragmented between regional and national support. But above all, they are not yet equipped to accept SMS or for pre-identified users such as the hard of hearing, deaf or vision impaired. blind”.
But above all, this is in addition to the various means already integrated by Apple into its iPhone and Apple Watch (even if the latter cannot support the exchange of satellites) for quick assistance to the user in the event of a difficult situation such as the detection of falls or now that of traffic accidents. Satellite Emergency SOS is a two-year service. Thereafter, it will be according to the good will of the operators. Please note that the feature can be used in all countries where it is available.
Source: BFM TV
