The iPhone 14's Prize Feature Kicked Off 2023's Biggest Phone Trend - CNET

Iridium Satellite phones have been around for decades, showing up in films as far back as Steven Seagal's 1992 classic military thriller Under Siege whenever someone needs to make calls from the middle of the ocean.

The first of these systems was Iridium, which launched its service in 1998 and a dozen other satellite networks have survived by offering connectivity to frequent travelers, but the prospect became popular recently after Elon Musk's rocket startup SpaceX borrowed the idea to surround the globe with internet coverage through its Starlink program.

But phone makers are building in the capability to use those orbital networks to send emergency texts because smartphone radios have gotten good enough to communicate with satellites directly, instead of relying on a separate -- and often large -- antenna.

Apple only activates this feature in a handful of countries in those continents, and it only works for emergency text messages made outside (it won't reach deep within buildings), but the company pledged that new iPhone 14 owners get two years of service included when they buy the phone.

And there are smaller players with their own niche devices, like Bullitt, which announced its Motorola-branded rugged phone powered by a MediaTek chipset at CES 2023 that will launch in the first quarter of 2023 for an undisclosed price tag.

Even if most people will never have the misfortune to need it, the feature still acts as a safety net, helping the more adventurous phone users who wander beyond cell towers or disaster survivors after mobile networks fail.