I have some experience with them. Last year 4 of us went to Newfoundland on a Caribou hunt and knew from past trips there wouldn't be any cell service since it is really remote. One of the group needed to stay in touch with home for various reasons and elected to rent a sat phone. I can report it worked perfectly and gave good quality service when needed. The unit was kind of large and wouldn’t be a great unit for back packing but was fine for bringing to an outfitters lodge. It was about the size of the older bag type cell phones that were popular about 10 years ago. It had a battery that stayed charged for 10 days and a plug for recharging if needed. I hope this helps.