When you press the SOS button on many satellite devices, including inReach and SPOT, your alert goes to an obscure building in Montgomery, Texas, home of the IERCC.
The Texas team’s network now monitors some 634,000 devices (satellite phones, GPS beacons, activity trackers) used by nature lovers, athletes, and adventurers in places where cell signals can’t reach. Hardware makers such as Garmin, Globalstar, Inmarsat, and Iridium say the IERCC’s expertise and global network of emergency responders are worth a small cut of their monthly satellite network subscription fees, like the 911 fees that wireless carriers charge – about $1 a month per device, on average.
— Rex
