Satellite phones provide voice and data communications where landlines don’t reach and cell phones don’t have coverage. They communicate to an array of orbiting satellites and the satellites relay your voice and data communications to terrestrial ground stations and finally to a standard phone network. There are a large number of satellites that form a constellation so you can use a satellite phone to communicate from virtually anywhere on the planet.

There are presently five major satellite phone service providers. Most are geared to the business customer, but both Global Star and Iridium have service plans that are in reach of the average person. The satellite phones themselves are still rather bulky compared to today’s cell phones, but the sizes are coming down and the prices are dropping. You can find a good used satellite phone on eBay for under $300. You can find a service plan that costs around $40 per month for access and 1$ per minute for airtime. That is pretty standard but you should shop around to find the best deal.

If you only need a satellite phone for your vacation or business trip to the Antarctica, there are a number of companies that provide satellite phone rental. You can normally rent a satellite phone on a weekly or monthly basis with a nice set of standard features such as voice mail, text messaging, and prepaid return back to the rental agency. This is the way to go if you only need the phone for a short time or you simply want to try the service before you make such a large investment in equipment and service contracts