Definitely not cell signal everywhere, the town I'm in has it, but go on a longer hiking trip into the mountains and you can potentially be 20-30 miles from the

Definitely not cell signal everywhere, the town I'm in has it, but go on a longer hiking trip into the mountains and you can potentially be 20-30 miles from the nearest house/road/person with zero cell service on any provider. Even just a few miles up the OHV trail near my house has no service anymore. Pretty much none of the mountain area around the valley does. That said I carry a garmin inreach, because while stuff like meshtastic is handy to link groups together and use for fun and utility, for safety you want something that works anywhere.