UAE-based Thuraya is a satellite telecommunications company. Their newest product, the Skyphone, is an Android smartphone—with a chunky pull-out antenna. If you can't get a GSM signal on a local carrier, pull out the antenna, and you can now communicate using Thuraya's own satellite network.

We're familiar with roaming charges, but I wonder what Space Roaming charges look like.

A complete list of the phone's physical dimensions (and its price) hadn't been released at press time, but at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Phone Arena reviewer Preslav Kateliev got his hands on a demo model and says the size seems manageable:

"It's a somewhat hefty handset — it starts with the 6.67" AMOLED screen, and then there's hardware it needs to fit, including its retractable antenna. We wouldn't say it's unwieldy — it's on the thicker side, but we've rocked phones with rugged cases on them before, and this is about the same in size. It does also have IP67 rating for dust- and water-resistance."

Image: Phone Arena

Image: Phone Arena

Image: Phone Arena

The Skyphone probably won't be coming to the U.S.; while Thuraya's five-satellite network covers over 150 countires "across the globe," that translates to Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. Those of us in this hemisphere are limited to Iridium's dedicated sat-phones.

All of that said, as someone who lives in a low-signal area, I think I'd be willing to live with a thicker (non-satellite) smartphone that had a pull-out antenna, just to improve regular connectivity.