I use it daily. I live in Silicon Valley, but house is in the shadow of a hill, and we get zero reception. If I’m too far from the WiFi router, I’m off grid. Since last year I’ve been able to send and receive iMessage texts when out in the backyard or walking around the property.
In all seriousness, have you considered adding an outdoor access point? They reach quite far as you usually have Line of Sight. Trying to get a centrally placed indoor AP to penetrate inner and outer walls is guaranteed to give reception issues.
Oh yea that's the Silicon Valley I remember from my time there. I lived in Mountain View and at&t 768kbit DSL was the only available internet (Comcast dropped connection so often I had to cancel). Many years ago but still fascinating how bad it was in what one would consider the centre of the internet. Good times...
That means absolutely nothing, unfortunately. I usually see that icon when I'm on the Subway, and I'd be deeply impressed if Globalstar could actually transmit through a few meters of water and a couple more of rock.
The only thing this icon does seem to respect is general geolocation (i.e. I haven't seen it in unsupported countries). You'll only know if you have satellite connectivity if you actually try using it.
The SOS icon means you're off your network, but you can still make emergency 911 calls. The phone will connect to whatever network is available (if any) to make the call. By law (in the U.S.), the other networks have to carry the call free of charge.
I have an iPhone X that's not signed up with any network, and isn't capable of satellite communications, but still displays the SOS icon because it can make 911 calls.
I'm talking about the SOS + satellite icons appearing together. In my experience, that only appears if there is no other network available, which is the case in most subway tunnels in NYC.
