Thanks for your comments Brad. To answer Malibuhaze further, yes, I have looked into obtaining a satellite phone, several times. The last I checked, the prices were too exorbitant, though I have heard the cost has dropped in some areas. At first, satellite phones seemed like a great idea, filling in the gaps, where cell phones do not work. The big problem they ran into though, was they that they were targeting sparsely populated areas, thus resulting in little user traffic and limited profits. I would be interested in hearing of other satellite phone experiences from local people. E.g., about costs, how well they work in out of the way valleys, how long the batteries last in cold weather and things of that nature.

Meanwhile, analog cellular phone systems are slated to shut down February 18, which will render many old cell phones useless.
This will even affect many Onstar car safety systems, even some recent ones. See this Washington Post extract:

"We're not just talking about 10-year-old vehicles--Lexus kept selling analog-only versions of its Lexus Link system until 2004, GM was building analog-only OnStar hardware as late as 2005, and some Mercedes-Benz cars--even the $300,000-and-way-up Maybach--shipped with analog-only TeleAid systems last year."

Full story is here:
blog.washingtonpost.com