The era of Emergency Services Everywhere
For those people old enough to remember traveling without a mobile phone, you may remember occasionally calling family collect from a pay phone to let them know you were okay and where you were. Otherwise, you were literally off the grid, and no one could get hold of you or know if you were ok except when you called home. This would be especially true for the backpacker set or international traveller moving frequently between cities and Countries. Since this was the norm and had been literally forever, no one thought twice about the risks associated with traveling, especially alone, without having a lifeline for people to reach you, or more importantly for you to easily reach others or Emergency Services if needed.
This all changed when mobile phones became pervasive over the last 20+ years. Now it is virtually unheard of to travel without your mobile. Roaming fees aside, it is technically easy to keep in touch with friends and family at the touch of a button. In case of an emergency help can be reached from the mobile, so long as you are in an area of cellular coverage.
Today most people don’t think twice about going on a road trip where there is no Cellular coverage, let alone a hike or canoeing trip outside of coverage zones. It is the risk associated with taking such an endeavour that you may not be in a Cellular Coverage area all the time and if you need to reach anyone, including help in case of an Emergency, would require getting back inside a Cellular coverage zone.
We are now at an inflection point where cellular coverage will largely become irrelevant to be able to get help in times of trouble. This is beginning to change given the recent announcements and launches by Apple and Google adding the ability to contact Emergency Services over Satellite as described in the referenced articles below. Once you own a mobile that supports this capability, Emergency Services can be contacted if you are in an accident on a rural road with no Cellular coverage, or if you have a medical emergency when on a canoeing, hiking, or camping trip in the woods.
Given the importance to society and benefit to everyone it makes sense to make this a mandatory service to be offered for any device that supports satellite connectivity. It is literally a win-win-win for everyone – the Cellular Carriers can position this as a value-added capability their devices support, the device vendors that support satellite connectivity benefit by becoming a preferred device by consumers, and society benefits by being able to reach Emergency Services no matter where they may be, regardless of Cellular coverage.
Let’s hope sometime in the not too distant future no one has to worry about their ability to be able to contact Emergency Services if something bad were to happen when on a road trip, hiking or camping trip given these capabilities being introduced now.
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