[Cass]

This isn't meant for heli-skiers who go out with a few thousand bucks of equipment. None of the average hikers I know own a satellite phone, plenty of them like to hike alone, and an hour of walking into the woods (hardly a strenuous hike) will frequently land you somewhere with patchy service (and this is in a country with perfectly well-functioning infrastructure, not the middle of the Rocky Mountains.)

I'm sure this is going to lead to a few spectacular, high-profile rescues, but I'd bet the average use case is going to be "saved me three hours of crawling through the woods on a broken ankle to get back to the last place I had cell service."

[ghaff]

I live fifty miles west of a major Northeast city and cell phone is patchy at my house without WiFi assist. I'm sure there tons of spots within an hour drive of my house where I hike that have patchy cell service.