That’s kind of what I expect. It will simply be free forever but maybe the other services that they might add in the future, such as iMessage over satellite, will cost extra.
“A man got lost in the woods and died because he didn’t pay Apple two dollars a month“ is probably not a headline they want to see.
It’s also possible they didn’t know how often it would end up getting used and so they said that is a hedge in case it ended up too expensive on their end. Now that they know it’s not they don’t really worry about it.
I mean they they don't have to choose between "100% free forever" and "not free and literally kill the people who didn't pay in advance."
They could just leave it enabled for everyone, and then retroactively charge them for a (moderately hefty) 1 year subscription if they end up using it.
“A man got lost in the woods and died because he didn’t pay Apple two dollars a month“ is probably not a headline they want to see.
It’s also possible they didn’t know how often it would end up getting used and so they said that is a hedge in case it ended up too expensive on their end. Now that they know it’s not they don’t really worry about it.