Originally published at: What Does SOS in the iPhone Status Bar Mean? - TidBITS
What does it mean when SOS appears in your iPhone’s status bar? (Hint: it’s not an iPhone cry for help.) Adam Engst explains this new status indicator in iOS 16.
I just got back from a European trip, which included a lot of time on a boat. Instead of SOS, I repeatedly saw E when I was withing cell range but not within range of my network. So, I can surmise that Europe has an equivalent requirement regarding cellphones and emergency access.
I’m pretty sure that E indicates Edge, which is an old cell technology.
Indeed, “E” means you’re connected to the Edge band.
It is supposed to work like that in Canada too, but recently Rogers (one of Canada’s large carriers) had their whole system go down for the better part of a day, and during that time, Rogers customers couldn’t make 911 calls. They have promised to fix the problem but I haven’t heard the other carriers (Telus and Bell) say if this would have worked better for their customers or not.