Being a small world, years ago I was on a design team for some comm equipement that was bound for Japan. The equipment was "very well made" to withstand effects such as "a firehose." Enough said about that.
Sat phones if you get the cheap plan run about 5 dollars a minute. I hope this clears that up for you.
My bet is that Japan has the strongest cell system in the world given my experience a few years ago.
Bob
Hi there, someone enlighten me.
On the today show to day, Monday, March 14th 2011, Ann Curry was over in Japan because of the disaster, she found a person and called their family and let them talk, I thought they have cell there still ? My wife said it's one of them satellite phones.
So it made me wonder, and I can't tell by shopping for phones.
What is the deal between cell, satellite and I guess Gps is satellite, phones, what is the satellite technology refered to as ? is it better than cell ? does it cost the same as cell ?...etc et-cetera.. 
Chowhound
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