AT&T and Terrestar have announced a new phone coming out early next year. The phone will work off of the usual cell phone towers and when service is not available from the towers it will switch to Terrestar’s satellite service.

The phone will be a smart phone named Genus. Features will include a 2.6-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Blue-tooth, GPS, a 3-megapixel camera, 100MB internal storage, micro SD card slot (maximum 16GB), and Windows Mobile 6.5.

The new phone will also come loaded with a VOIP program and Microsoft Office and Outlook mobile. The service area will include the continental United States, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Territory waters.

The price of the new satellite phone has not been announced yet. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be cheap though. Users will have to sign up for the data and voice service and pay extra for the satellite service. There is also going to be roaming charges for the satellite service.

The first users of the new satellite phone will be businesses, first responders, government, and enterprise. They are working on a similar service for individual users.