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Comment by skilled | Hacker News Reader

The satellite is sadly not available outside of USA or Canada. But I understand that getting this tech out to other countries and their carriers is probably an absolute nightmare.

And it doesn't look like a free service either, even though Apple could have built an entire identity around it.

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It will be free for 2 years. However I really hope they make it usable even if you are not paying for the subscription. Imagine being shut out in an emergency situation because your card expired.

I'd hope if you're in a life or death situation, and not paying, they'd still let you use it. Imagine finding a dead body in the wilderness with a note saying they could've called for help if apple let them. Seems very tricky to profit off something like this while still 'doing the right thing'.

I think for this reason alone they might in the next 2 years just make it a default service as part of the iPhone experience. I hope so anyway. That alone would make me upgrade, even though I could make my existing phone last for many years still.

Right.

In two years, the emergency text feature will be standard and free for everyone while some enhanced features will cost money.

And it doesn't look like a free service either, even though Apple could have built an entire identity around it.

It’s free for two years after buying an iPhone 14.

So, its a paid service then.

then you'll prolly have to upgrade to the latest iphone to get it free for another 2 years :P

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