This article was written for Argus - the member's magazine of the Victorian Climbing Club Before I get into the details, I have to clean up a couple of fairy tales: Magical Phones If you see the "No Service" or similar on your phone, that's pretty much it. Your phone is as useless as your coffee cup or a brick. NO! Neither of them will magically turn into a satellite communication device. I see that proposed in hiking forums all the time but it's a myth . All SatCom devices work - NOT All PLBs/EPIRBs* have very limited function - "I need help! I'm here" - but they do it very well. They are cheap and very reliable. You can't go wrong with any model. However if you need a bit more function, you got a couple of options for off-grid (emergency) communication Satellite Phone >> Not so cheap but great functionality Garmin inReach >> two-way satellite messenger and tracker Iridium Go >> Mobile data thingymebob