I'm surprised this feature is provided by Globalstar. That network is, as the name says, global so why limit the feature to the US and Canada?
The Iridium network (which is what Garmin uses) covers nearly everything outside of the north and south poles. This includes all the oceans and basically all habitable land. That is why Iridium has dominated the satellite market for so many years over GlobalStar. Garmin satellite devices (like InReach) uses Iridium. But they also have non-trivial costs associated with that coverage.
As someone who has used these satellite communicators for years, don't get your hopes up on using these all the time like an extension of your phone. Sending messages over satellite is painfully slow, even with devices with advanced helix antennas (which the iPhone doesn't have). It can take minutes to send a single text message. Phone communicators sometimes have 20-30+ second lag in them.
I didn't realize Globalstar was that bad though. I knew it wasn't great due to the bent pipe network which precludes signals far out at sea etc. I've seen several hikers with Spot devices and they didn't seem unhappy with them. Mostly Americans though.
But yeah then I can imagine.
Nearly all Apple services are available only in the US and Canada to start; this is nothing new.
I’m sure Europe and Asia are next.
And it's not just for emergency either, also for find my.