[gaijin]

Call your girlfriend up on your ordinary handset from your yacht in the very middle of the Pacific..!

Or from the top of Everest.

[Yo-Yo]

That would be the only way for such a service to be profitable. If special handsets are required, Iridium already exists.

If a LEO constellation of satellites could be build and deployed that interacted with ordinary GSM handsets, that would open up an entire new market not only for isolated locations, but as gap fillers and even as in-flight entertainment service.