RIP Garmin Inreach … iPhones to allow satellite messages in ios18

[yakimanoob]

A few thoughts:

• First and foremost, please only trust your lifeline to proven, reliable systems, not to nascent tech. Cell-based satcoms is very promising, but it's not here yet, and there will be bugs to work out. You don't want to find a bug in the system when you're in a medical emergency in the wilderness.
• This isn't the first time a major company has promised a new and exciting feature, only to cancel the plans (looking at you, Samsung S24).
• Globalstar is not on its way out. It's on the rise. And you can tell this exactly because the 3rd largest company in the world recently launched a never-before-seen service (Sat SOS via cell phone) using Globalstar's constellation and just announced a massive increase in service (regular cell-to-sat testing) coming hopefully later this year. Saying Globalstar is on its way out is like saying the 277 Fury is on its way out. Nonsense. Even if you hate the current version of it.

 

[yakimanoob]

All that said, if Apple's new cell-to-sat features work out the way their promising, I will almost certainly cancel my InReach subscription at some point.

As the Spartans famously said: if.

 

[MTGomer]

We will see. Despite all of the 5G conspiracies, all it managed to do is make cell phone service less good. I won’t be ditching my InReach to rely on my cell phone to be a GPS communicator until it has proven itself, considering I can name a handful of places I used to be able to talk, text or even FaceTime, that I can barely get a bar for a text now.

 

[SAJ-99]

We will see. Despite all of the 5G conspiracies, all it managed to do is make cell phone service less good. I won’t be ditching my InReach to rely on my cell phone to be a GPS communicator until it has proven itself, considering I can name a handful of places I used to be able to talk, text or even FaceTime, that I can barely get a bar for a text now.

It doesn't use cell signals.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Saying Globalstar is on its way out is like saying the 277 Fury is on its way out. Nonsense. Even if you hate the current version of it.

So possibly just on its way to expensive and overhyped irrelevance?

 

[sccritterkiller]

We will see. Despite all of the 5G conspiracies, all it managed to do is make cell phone service less good. I won’t be ditching my InReach to rely on my cell phone to be a GPS communicator until it has proven itself, considering I can name a handful of places I used to be able to talk, text or even FaceTime, that I can barely get a bar for a text now.

It's the 5G frequencies that make service bad. 700-800 MHZ propagates way better than the 5G 28GHz-39GHz. You have to remember cell tower infrastructure was designed back in the day when cell phones used a much lower frequency and a no data. Some of infrastructure is 30+ years old and was never designed for the frequencies or amount of data used today. Need more transmitters/antenna closer together for the modern network to function properly.

Add to that every local zoning jurisdiction in the USA takes a NIMBY approach to towers/antennas but they bitch about shitty service.

Been in the industry for 25 years trust me if the carriers had there way there would be antennas everywhere and reception wouldn't be an issue.

 

[MTGomer]

It doesn't use cell signals.

I know.

 

[MTGomer]

Add to that every local zoning jurisdiction in the USA takes a NIMBY approach to towers/antennas but they bitch about shitty service.

just a year ago, I was at a city council meeting where people were banging on the city to aplroach the carriers to build new towers. A few months ago, proposal came in to add three new ones around town and people came out in droves to oppose it. They all agreed that Service needed to improve, but it needed to improve by being placed elsewhere.

 

[Treeshark]

As an iPhone user, I hope this works well. I won’t cancel my Inreach or stop carrying it, just like I won’t stop carrying my Garmin GPS even though my phone does that better.

I haven’t used the GPS in years, but I bring it as a backup to my iPhone. Which is what I hope my Inreach becomes. Two is one/one is none with certain critical pieces of equipment.

 

[sccritterkiller]

just a year ago, I was at a city council meeting where people were banging on the city to aplroach the carriers to build new towers. A few months ago, proposal came in to add three new ones around town and people came out in droves to oppose it. They all agreed that Service needed to improve, but it needed to improve by being placed elsewhere.

Folks wonder why Tmo has signed a deal with stralink and ATT and Vzw have signed deals with AST Spacemobile. If I had guess whoever was proposing those 3 towers spent 75k-100k on the due diligence for the proposal and it went nowhere...They won't be back at the table for at least 5 yrs.

 

[rred85]

Starlink satellite from SpaceX with DTC will provide text, calls and video soon.

has Starlink released a timeframe on this?

 

[Sytes]

has Starlink released a timeframe on this?

Starlink

High-speed internet. Available almost anywhere on Earth.

www.starlink.com

 

[yakimanoob]

So possibly just on its way to expensive and overhyped irrelevance?

Possibly

 

[brymoore]

As an iPhone user, I hope this works well. I won’t cancel my Inreach or stop carrying it, just like I won’t stop carrying my Garmin GPS even though my phone does that better.

I haven’t used the GPS in years, but I bring it as a backup to my iPhone. Which is what I hope my Inreach becomes. Two is one/one is none with certain critical pieces of equipment.

I don’t carry my GPS anymore but I do have a map and compass on big trips.