This is absolutely not true for a vast part of the PNW. For example, with Verizon, I've bailed myself out of several situations where the alternative would be -

This is absolutely not true for a vast part of the PNW. For example, with Verizon, I've bailed myself out of several situations where the alternative would be - wait (nobody showed up in the time we were waiting for help when we called, so hours more at least) or walk 20+ miles. I've also been in a situation where if we did not have a sat phone in our group, someone very well may have died from heat stroke/way to many sunburns.