The ROI on that seems pretty bleak from a business perspective. Without paying customers’ usage to bankroll the buildout, I find it highly doubtful that any carrier would agree to emergency-use only stations.
My point is there is no technical reason why the emergency sevices couldn’t put up towers for 911 calls only.
Basically a Stingray device for geolocation purposes instead of surveillance.
I have a GPS beacon that sends a distress signal to a satellite which then may a cause a plane to get in the air.
I've been wondering, are there any such satellite-based distress-signaling tools that only charge you for the service if you actually use it? I imagine most people would gladly pay through the nose for actual emergency services, but would otherwise not desire to make a single cent in monthly payments for a service they don't use...
Any idea what the monthly costs are on those things? If it's like $20/month, and they have 100k subs, with maybe 50 annual rescues, you're looking at $40k / rescue? Numbers totally made up, was just looking for a feel on how they stack up.
I had looked up the costs a few days ago and found something along $50-100/month for the subscription (Iridium).
But in the process of searching for that again, I learned that the term to search for is "personal locator beacon", and apparently those do operate exactly like I mentioned! https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/personal-locator-bea...
Thanks for the nudge :)