I can well believe it.
Same with plain old GSM and GPRS/3G data - there have been some amazing obscure deals, like South African Vodafone (Vodacom) doing PAYG data at about 10p/MB roaming. Unfortunately they kill the account after ~ 3 months out of the country...
There is an Italian WIND SIM card which does PAYG data at £1/MB roaming, but you have to go to Italy to register it initially.
Tested the sat phone in a car. It is completely useless while moving. A brief obstruction (a few houses) blocking the line of sight and the connection is lost.