Mike -

No recent experience, but here's a two-part article on The Travel Insider website, updated June 2007, about sat-phone service. Besides mentioning Globalstar's satellite problems, as discussed in the Barron's article, they commented: "Testing showed that while Iridium service offered a 95% - 98% success rate on making 3 minute calls, Globalstar service failed two calls out of every three." Not great odds! Part two of the article compares Globalstar and Iridium in a bit more detail.

Dan