Google could be working on an emergency SOS service called Pixel Satellite SOS, but it won't be free forever. Would you pay for it?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17858715

Google could be working on an emergency SOS service called Pixel Satellite SOS, but it won’t be free forever. Would you pay for it?

  • tiredofsametab@kbin.run
    20·
    5 months ago

    Not enough info. I live in a place with earthquakes, typhoons, volcanoes, and tsunamis so it might be worth it. I also like to take my motorbike to the middle of nowhere sometimes and don’t currently have any other device to contact anyone.

  • solrize@lemmy.worldEnglish
    161·
    5 months ago

    Pretty stupid question since the cost is not stated, the reliability and coverage is unknown, and it might or might not require a high end phone. I don’t plan to buy a pixel 9 before they are old enough to be deeply discounted, at any rate. To put it in perspective, a Moto Defy is $150+$5/mo and I haven’t bought one of them. Anything I buy would have to be cheaper and at least as good.

  • ShepherdPie@midwest.socialEnglish
    13·
    5 months ago

    In the PNW where lots of people spend time out in the mountains or desert miles away from anything and any service, normalizing satellite communication into regular smartphones would be excellent in an emergency. I know they have special satellite phones now but the costs are insanely expensive.

    • HiddenLychee@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      Fucking awful in Montana. Even in cities att barely gets me data once a week. Satellite would almost be necessary in rural America

      • smeeps@lemmy.mtate.me.ukEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        That’s a shame, I get full 5g in most cities, up to 2Gbps when next to the masts, and 4G almost everywhere else populated.

  • MusketeerX@lemm.eeEnglish
    51·
    5 months ago

    No way. Coverage on my carrier is solid everywhere I’ve been - even in the middle of a national park a couple of hours outside the city recently.

    I like to get away, but I’m not the type to want to go to extremely remote places, hours from the nearest town in the middle of the desert or anything like that. So this is useless to me.

    I’ll accept it if it’s free, otherwise you can keep it.

  • FlaxEnglish
    41·
    5 months ago

    Setting up a pay-as-you-go option would be rather neat

  • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    5 months ago

    oh good, if this technology is on the horizon, I will continue to resist the urge to establish starlink service. I will wait until my android phone has this built in.

  • LCP@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    5 months ago

    Maybe for a month if I’m on a trip to a remote location. Don’t really see a use for it other than that.