Today, there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of repeaters (or more) and more cell phone towers everywhere, it's virtually impossible to go anywhere on the planet where you can't get a signal. In areas where signals are weak on normal cell phones you can find a GPS satellite phone that doesn't use the repeaters or cell towers at all- it literally bounces a strong signal out to the satellite in space and uses IT to broker the phone call connection.
Chances of needing a satellite phone for most people is very low and the network has been slowly getting faster and faster to the point of a 4th generation of network updates (where technology is completely updated to a new version, new equipment, and a much faster connection speed through the air). Smart phones are as powerful today as computers were in the year 2000. That's just the lower end ones. The high end smartphone is as powerful if not more powerful than today's latest computer technologies.
Chances of needing a satellite phone for most people is very low and the network has been slowly getting faster and faster to the point of a 4th generation of network updates (where technology is completely updated to a new version, new equipment, and a much faster connection speed through the air). Smart phones are as powerful today as computers were in the year 2000. That's just the lower end ones. The high end smartphone is as powerful if not more powerful than today's latest computer technologies.