First responders in Colorado’s mountain towns are receiving a “wave” of unfounded texts for help from satellite-enabled iPhones, reports The Colorado Sun.
At least 10 Colorado 911 dispatch centers have received emergency texts from iPhones saying people were trapped, lost or on fire. When search-and-rescue teams responded, they found no emergency situations.
The Colorado Sun says that, in the past week or so, 911 dispatch centers in about 10 rural Colorado counties have each received about 10 “awkwardly worded texts” seeking help. All of them were unfounded. And all of them are coming from iPhones using Apple’s new satellite texting feature.
At first, there was a palpable fear that pranksters were “swatting” search-and-rescue teams, mirroring a more common and disturbing trend of making hoax calls to 911 to dispatch armed police officers to a particular address.
“It sure felt like a swatting issue,” Grand County Sheriff Brett Schroetlin told The Colorado Times. The sheriff spent the weekend calling Apple and the phone number that triggered the 911 call.
It took a few days before he heard back from Apple.
“They are looking into it. They are not calling it a glitch but they are definitely saying it was not malicious,” he said. “It’s not swatting or a hoax.”
Emergency SOS via satellite — available on all models of iPhone 14, iPhone 15, and iPhone 16 — allows users to share information with emergency calling services even when they’re out of cellular or Wi-Fi. In addition, if you want to let your friends and family know your location when you are out where you can’t reach cellular communication or Wi-Fi radio waves, you can open the “Find” app and share your location information via satellite.
This service is available for free for two years from the time you activate a new iPhone Since the announcement in 2022, emergency SOS via satellite has already helped to save lives in 16 countries offered, according to Apple
All models included in the iPhone 14/15/16 lineup can be connected directly to the satellite with a combination of software that works closely with proprietary hardware parts. Emergency SOS via satellite is based on existing functions that are essential for iPhone users, such as emergency SOS, medical ID, emergency contact, and sharing location information of “Find”, and it is an emergency call service that connects to the satellite and provides important information.
The service allows users to connect to satellite relay centers with Apple-trained emergency response professional staff.
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