Starlink has made a decision that could make history. Elon Musk's company has announced that they will provide free emergency calls to all people who need them, no matter where they are or what operator they have. With this unexpected news, the company has managed to turn all eyes on it.
The news was announced by Musk himself, who, from X, revealed that, after having thought about it very carefully, they have decided to provide these services free of charge for all users. This is a solid statement of intentions and something that could make a difference for some people who may find themselves in a critical situation.
Elon Musk is determined
In his post on X, which you can see below, Elon Musk assures that Starlink will be responsible for providing emergency services for all people who need them. They will be free and can be used on mobile phones regardless of, as we have indicated, where they are or the operator with which they have contracted their service.
Musk says that his decision applies worldwide, although it will be something that will have to be approved by the governments of each country. Therefore, as much as Starlink wants to have this detail with all users, it will possibly not be something that can be enjoyed until it receives the approval. Considering that there are places in the world where Starlink encounters obstacles to offering its service, it is possible that coverage of the entire planet will take a while to arrive. What Musk especially emphasizes is that he does not want a situation to occur in which someone dies because they have forgotten to pay their line, they have not been able to face the payment or they do not have service for whatever reason.
In which areas will the service be available?
With the help of Starlink, it is understood that the SpaceX company will offer its free emergency call service in rural areas or in maritime locations. In both cases, it is intended as a resource for these types of situations in remote places where there may not be another option and resorting to satellite calls is something that can get us out of trouble.
However, some users have commented that they believe that it will also be something that can be used in urban areas in situations where the mobile line has been lost. For example, if a catastrophe occurs and mobile lines have some kind of problem, using this Starlink service could become the only option available.
The talk is mostly about natural disasters, but another person suggests that Starlink would also be the best chance of getting through a massive cyberattack in which mobile lines are disconnected. In this context, what Starlink could do would be to connect mobile phones to its satellites and thus maintain normality for as long as necessary. But, possibly, that is getting ahead of itself, given that, for the moment, free calls will apply to what was mentioned above.
And there doesn’t seem to be any fine print. Apple has a similar service, but it can only be used by those with the latest generation of iPhones. In contrast, Starlink will provide this support service on all 4G/LTE phones, and unlike the iPhone, it will not rely on Globalstar satellite capacity. Instead, Starlink will use its own technology, which you probably know covers much more capacity than you could ever imagine with its huge satellite constellations. We expect that we will soon learn more about this initiative, which, as we said, could mark an important milestone in the industry.