Actually :
The advanced spot-beam technology allows Inmarsat satellite phones to maintain a footprint stretching across most of the Earth. The built-in GPS in the Isatphone Pro is used in part to pass location information to the satellite so that the satellite can assign the proper spot bean to a, Isatphone Pro user. Notice that the spot beams overlap, providing near seamless coverage.
Isatphone Satellite Phone Coverage - Inmarsat World Wide Coverage Map at Globalcom
But all the inmarsat stuff is nothing but a rumor as long as there is nothing established about the equipment actually on board and the state is was in during the flight. For all we know some journalist can have read something like the above link and made up the rest.