Her lat may be too far north, but setting up a sat line internet service is pretty common these days. We did quite a few of those in Iraq, and it was surprisingly not that expensive. Then for a fixed fee you can have something like Skype service (or simply use an IM service and video teleconferencing capabilities) to stay in touch.

Using a sat phone could get expensive quick, even if there was a good data port capability with the unit. 3G is not likely to be available, and bandwidth would be limited.

I thought that Alaska was going to pipeline the Alcan Ferry route with cell service already. If so, maybe she can just use a cell phone that has email service, like my blackberry.