[dboreham]

Sat phones are quite common where I live in Montana (you only have to drive 10 miles out of town to lose cell reception). The geosynchronous Inmarsat service is typically better/cheaper than Iridium today. I pay around $35/mo for more call time and SMS than I need to use. The phones are reasonably small but very old-school (like a 2000-vintage GSM handset). Because it uses satellites over the equator you need a southern aspect to connect. Folks rock climbing up north-facing cliffs or sailing north of 70 degrees need Iridium :)

[mattkrause]

Interesting! We looked at Inmarsat and Globalstar when we were in Alaska, but we were at the very edge of their coverage area and it didn't seem worth it to have a potentially-flakey phone for emergencies.

I gather it's gotten a lot better since then, though.