As others pointed out I also think that satellite connections are the wrong tech here.
How about a wifi meshing phone that is made for reaching wifis much farther away in distance?
Maybe partner with wigle to have available wifis in your local area?
If you have a wifi card that is 3x2 or 4x2, you can also use one antenna for peering purposes. One antenna has to be constantly scanning while moving though, so I guess that needs a lot of power...but maybe it's still feasible!?
Network infrastructure wise wifi has a lot of benefits, if you also offer something like a raspberry pi image I'm sure people would love to help build up the meshnet. Maybe you can also hook up on Apple's network similar to how their AppleTags work.