I guess I am out of touch with technology or maybe it is just because the countries I ahve spent the last 20 years living in are all really small but I have never been in a situation where I didn't have a signal. We even had service on boats in the middle of the ocean when I was a scuba instructor.

Now that I think about it I don't even think that this is the topic of your writeup but you are good with the talkin so let's see what happens :)