I rented a Globalstar satellite phone for a week last year for a solo elk hunt in the the mountains of SW Colorado. It cost me about $50 to rent for a week and also $50 return shipping. So . . . about $100 for a week's use. There was also an about $1.50/minute fee leveled on top of the rental fee, so you may not want to have long winded conversations, but it sure is handy for an emergency or to provide notification of changes of plans. My Globalstar satellite phone worked OK for me, so long as I was out in the open and not under tree canopy. There were occasions, infrequent, when a gap in the satellite pattern left me without coverage for about 5-10 minutes. I was pretty pleased with the peace of mind this gave my wife and family when I went on this high mountain solo hunt. I have heard that Iridium works better, but I also think the Iridium costs more. Given the experience I had, I would use the Globalstar again. If you can distribute the cost across several people, for example an elk hunting camp of 4 to 8 people, it makes the cost very reasonable.