A free emergency service is despicable because it’s not forever. Really?

Yes. It's long (I think since the early days in the 80s) been a tenet in mobile phone industry that emergency calls always need to be free. You route them best to your technical ability - anything else is unethical.

With any cellular phone it's possible to dial the local emergency number.

Doesn't matter if your current operator has coverage, the phone will find the network that has the best coverage. There's still explicit validation of this capability for new phone devices.

You don't even need a SIM card.

But now Apple has ended the practice.

Would it be more ethical if they could but never did release this feature? Because that is essentially what you are advocating for, considering no public company could foot the bill in perpetuity.

The way this probably plays out is by the time the 2 years is up or shortly thereafter this will be subsidized by the gov.

Apple is leaving quite a bit of money on the table here, while simultaneously spending quite a bit. Wipe the entitlement from your eyes and recognize this for what it is.

> considering no public company could foot the bill in perpetuity.

iPhone margins do allow for it.

> Wipe the entitlement from your eyes and recognize this for what it is.

Sir, let me very calmly ask you to please behave better in discussions here.

So you can call certain behavior despicable but I can't call your behavior entitled. That sounds pretty entitled.

The body of the missing person had been found after 4 days of search. She still held her Phone in her hand displaying the Message: "Please update your credit card information to purchase this subscription. The free usage ended 6 days ago".

It was a mandatory requirement from the governments that issued the spectrum licenses, that's all.

That’s never been the case for satellite service - ever.

Well, this is the first time a mainstream phone gets satellite service.

That is true and this may set a new precedent, but connectivity requirements in the past were always placed on carriers before, and never phone manufacturers.

Phone manufacturers didn't offer services before. In this case Apple is the carrier (much like a MVNO) for the service.

That’s a per-country regulatory requirement - it’s true in most countries but the internet tells me it’s not true in the UK.

Despicable? This is a huge investment for Apple (look at Globalstar’s SEC filing for details), it’s free for 2 years, and we don’t even know what (if anything) it will cost after that. But you’re confident it’s “despicable”.

That smacks of some serious entitlement man…

I hate apple because of vendor lock in and nonsense with their walled garden. But seriously, GP is deluded.

Satellite emergency services has never been free, even if you buy an garmin device for this, they don't operate if you're not paying your monthly bill.

There were many Personal Locator Beacon's that worked without a subscription. They were more popular before the inReach, but still available.

a bit of strong reaction given you have no idea whether or not it includes lifetime global 911 after the 2 years...