Really depends what's your "travel style" - how you travel and where.
I like to spend my time in remote places, away from dense civilization. In remote places I see sat-phone as an "insurance", to call for help.
World's GSM coverage:
As you can see, in the "third-world" (Africa, Asia, S-America & Australia), GSM coverage is only in the bigger cities thus the GSM is basically useless for real adventure travellers spending their time off the beaten track if there's really an emergency.
I always have a scenareo in my mind I crash in the middle of nowhere, get an illness etc million scenareos it'd save your life. At least one of us (I travel 2-up) can call for help.
With Iridium phone you don't even need to have a SIM card to call 911 - you can just buy (a cheaper second hand-) phone for the emergency calls only
Like with any "insurance", you won't notice a need for it until you really need it...
If you travel in western-world or in very civilized parts of the world - sat-phone is not needed.
Last edited by Margus; 6 Nov 2008 at 12:36.
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