Piling on, but ATT just reclaimed it's perennial last place in Consumer Reports' ranking of mobile providers. Yay for them.

In a barely related note, I took the plunge on the Delorme Inreach gizmo during the black Friday frenzy--combining a heavy discount with a rebate deal Delorme has going. It makes the box cheap but even more than SPOT, it's the subscriptions that will bite you in the wallet.

I suspect it will give better coverage than SPOT because of using a larger sat network, but time will tell. The messaging functions are quite powerful and it lets you download Delorme maps to your mobile anywhere you're connected to the sat network (IIUC). Kind of a chunky thing, though--a black plastic half-pound lump.

Cheers,