Students stranded in a canyon use the satellite communication of the iPhone 14 to contact emergency services.
- 3 American students were rescued using the iPhone 14, while they were stuck in a canyon
- Without a network to call for help, they used Apple’s satellite communication
- The feature is also available in France and the Android ecosystem is already interested in it
Satellite communication is one of the main novelties of the iPhone 14 series. When the user needs to call for help, but has no Wifi or connection to mobile networks, the satellites take over. The functionality makes it possible to send an SOS via the satellites, to be rescued. And in Utah, USA, this feature just saved the lives of three students who were stranded in a canyon.
Having practiced canyoning for nearly a year, they went to explore a canyon they had spotted in Emery County. These students were prepared and had the necessary equipment. But they were surprised by the deep water which was caused by weather conditions, and got stuck. Two of these students had begun to show signs of hypothermia.
Blocked, but saved by the iPhone 14
The area had no mobile network to call for help. But fortunately, one of these students had an iPhone 14, equipped with satellite communication. And it was thanks to this feature that they were able to send an SOS and be rescued. However, even with the functionality of Apple, it was not won.
“The canyon was about 500 feet (about 150 meters, editor’s note) deep with steep rock walls, but about every 20 minutes a satellite would line up where we were in the canyon, and by holding the phone up we could get a signal where we could send an SMS to 911 in Emery County,” said one of these students, quoted by the KUTV site. While waiting for help, they ended up finding a way to get out of the water using their equipment and warmed up by lighting a fire with driftwood.
A must-have for future smartphones
This is not the first (and it will not be the last) time that the satellite communication of the iPhone 14 allows stranded people to contact rescue services. As a reminder, Apple has invested heavily to be able to offer this novelty on its smartphones. In November, the firm announced that it had invested more than $450 million in the feature, the majority of which was invested in Globalstar, the company that supplies the satellites.
And while satellite communication was only accessible in the United States at first, it is now available in other countries, including France. In addition, it’s a safe bet that other brands of smartphones will follow suit by offering similar features. Moreover, Google is preparing to integrate support for satellite communication on the next version of its operating system: Android 14.
TechAint 
It would seem that they didn’t have the necessary equipment. No spare clothes, dry bags, technical materials for reheating after being inundated, no one had a sat phone or dedicated emergency system outside of a random phone feature that would be useless when the phone died…
It’s great they had this phone on them, but it’s kind of goofy to tell that story, say they spent a year preparing and organizing, and then to say they had everything necessary when they clearly didn’t.
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