I think he downloaded the guides and videos for offline viewing, otherwise he would have been sending SOS messages to everyone he knows already
I can't recall which chapter it was, but there was a page that showed a close up of his phone, which had a single bar for the signal. I've experienced messages having a hard time getting sent through that kind of connection, and downloading/buffering videos being an incredible test of your patience... assuming it doesn't time out, too.
So I guess the odds are 50-50?