Can You Hear Me Now? Good.

So you’re driving down I-93 on a bright and early Friday morning to head home. Bored from the faded Coldplay song scuffling out of your speakers from one of northern New Hampshire’s fuzzy radio stations, you decide to give your pal a ring to make the exit signs fly by quick-er. In the midst of a deep conversation about your night with Captain Morgan and Sam Adams, or the twenty-page paper that was due—ahem—yesterday, your friend’s voice begins skipping like an old record. Their fading, static voice begins pulsing like a weak strobe light, and the next thing you know, you’re having a conversation with dead air. Frustrated, you throw the phone down and begin grumpily thinking about more useful ways the phone could be used—like a brake pedal cover or a substitute for the coarse dorm room toilet paper.

Sound familiar? Truth is, eighty-six percent of the world’s landmass and all of its oceans are in areas with inadequate landline service, and northern New Hampshire’s dense scenic tree-line is no exception. However, there’s a solution that, if you have a few pretty pennies to spend, just may be the answer for you—the “satellite phone”. The idea behind the satellite phone is to bypass the typical cell phone tower and rely on satellite capabilities alone, which are far more effective and reliable.

Although satellite phones have been around for some ten or fifteen years now, the customer base is small compared with landline and wireless voice services due to its expense. In 1994, a typical satellite phone cost $30,000, but since then has plummeted to $1,500, and while the price may be sky high, the satellite voice promises at least one feature the others don’t: complete coverage of the Earth, including extreme polar regions.

Regardless of high rates, vastly reliable satellite technology is essential for the most sensitive security situations, such as the Olympic games or political campaigns, and include everything in between. Moreover, post September 11, the satellite phone was a necessity for communication since landlines and cell phones were down, and is what kept the world up to date on the tragic aftermath. To avoid the extreme cost of launching and managing communications satellites, federal agencies are relying on this small but vital satellite voice market to ensure the global stability of communications for public safety and for backing up and recovering technology systems in an emergency.

All things considered, if you’re tired of phone calls that have the static of a clothes dryer full of wool, and got a couple grand in those pockets, then the satellite phone may be something to look into. On websites such as www.satphone-store.com, you can customize you very own phone from many satellite vendors including Iridium, Fleet77, or Inmarset, at prices starting from around $450 for the phone and airtime ranging from $0.17 to close to $10.00 per minute.

If these options are wishful thinking for you, then have faith—cell phone companies such as Verizon and Sprint are working everyday to help smooth out the frequently debated road that cell phone usage has been taking. Prices of cell phone plans have been dropping, while airtime durability has been rising, allowing customers to fully utilize the innovative options offered today. Just keep your ears open to the new improvements that have come about and hope for the best. Can you hear them now? Good.