Breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck...
Ham radio?
Satellite Internet?
Carrier Pigeon?
Can get satellite Internet with a VoIP phone from Hughes net, dish, wild blue, via sat, whoever is in your coverage area; or you could buy a globalstar or Iridium phone; gives you more mobility.
If I were you, CB radio would be the way to go.
What do the old timers at the courthouse suggest?
Surely your problem isn’t new.
Satellite internet and VOIP may be a solution.
Good luck.
Where are you that there is no cell service? CB radio is relatively low powered, and your local sheriff may or may not monitor the emergency channel 9.
Ever since the FCC eliminated the code requirement, a ham radio license on the 2 meter band, along with a local ham radio club that has set up a repeater station with a phone patch, would allow you to make a phone call from a mobile radio.
It will take just a little effort on your part to get a 2 meter license, but since you are a lawyer, I think you can handle a little study.
Look at the Ranger brand. Get one equivalent to 10 meter capabilities and have a qualified cb technician tweek it out to 45 watts. It should be able to easily carry 50 miles with upper and lower sideband.
my inexpensive baofeng radio at 5 watts can hit a repeater 12 miles away and more reliably than CB for clarity of signal.
Amateur radio...You can have both base, and mobile...and you can have comm with town....any town....in the Phillipines....or anywhere else.
CB is pretty much worthless. Ham radio is the way to go, but you will need a minimum of a “Technician” license.
de W4EX
Look into a satellite phone, as opposed to a cell phone? There are large swathes of Australia, among other places, where a satellite phone is the only real option.
general info in Wikipaedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_phone
and do searches on satellite phone, satellite internet, etc for more info in addition to the previous links I gave you for specific companies.
bear in mind that amateur radio is only for non-commercial use, and that using it to facilitate your business as an attorney may not be permitted. contact a two-way radio dealer about land mobile options, including community repeater access that would offer similar capabilities for business use.
Ask a local cell phone dealer if they still carry car phones. They are the ones that use a roof top car antenna and they push about 3 watts. Their range is a lot further than a hand held cellphone. There is a world of difference between the capabilities of a hand held cell phone and a Transportable I think they were called. They may still make them but likely special order.
How often has it happened that you have both no phone and no vehicle?