Those two incidents were right next door to me, so to speak, and they occurred in locations that are just barely off the road network, essentially day hiking country. Hardly an example of back country.

Cell phones, despite their quirks, are indeed changing SAR. Notification of an emergency occurs directly from the concerned party, rather than from someone in town who only knows that they are overdue. This leads to quicker response times and cleaner operations by taking the "search out of SAR." There have even been instances of people who were lost who transmitted a picture of their surroundings to the searchers, and of course, usually their position can be determined by cell tower triangulation.

As coverage gets better and technology evolves, cell phones will become more and more useful. The ability for two way communication should help repress the always present problem of trivial calls.