Smartphone with one feature that nobody else has

Have you ever been stuck in the middle of the ocean and needed to call someone desperately but had no cell phone service? Or maybe you are one of the bad guys from the show 24? Most are probably are not one of those people but this new phone is pretty cool nonetheless.  It is called the TerreStar Genus and not only can it connect to AT&Ts cell phone network but it also has the capability to function as a satellite phone. This is quite an unnecessary feature for the average person but if you are a fisherman or a park ranger in the mountains then this could be the perfect phone for you that is, if you can afford it. 


The phone itself costs about $800 and you are required to get a voice and data plan through AT&T but the upside is that there is no contract. On top of the normal monthly charges there is an extra $25 charge to be able to use the satellite phone service. Your probably thinking oh that’s not to bad, I pay $20 a month for unlimited text but oh how wrong you are… The 25 dollar charge does not give you ANY minutes; you have to pay an extra charge of $.65 a minute. You can also text message and use data over the satellite network, unfortunately the prices for these features are astronomical. For data, the price is $5 per MB which is measly 400 times the cost of non-satellite data! Text messages on the other hand are not nearly as outrageous at just $.40 per text which is only 4 times the price of non-satellite messaging. 


This is not the first commercially available satellite phone but it is one of the very few that are still in business though I doubt this one will last very long either with prices so high. This phone went on sale tuesday the 21^st so if your company (the phone is only available to busniness for now) has a lot of money to spend and happens to be located in the middle of the mountains or the ocean then call up AT&T and get yourself a TerreStar Genus!