MrCheerful wrote
Brian Gaff wrote

I notice that this month a new Iridium sat phone satellite is being
launched. Who is funding this these days, for ages it seemed to be a dead
in the water system.

at a grand for the phone and 2 quid a minute and a quid a text, only
explorers could justify one

That’s not true. Clearly govts and mining
operations etc and news agencys etc can too.

(although charging it each day could be a problem), a few flares to
supplement a mobile phone would be better value for the average Joe.

Or have enough of a clue to use transport systems
that have what it needs to communicate when the
**** does hit the fan.