Good thoughts. You're probably right. I would have to venture that if Apple makes a car, they sure as hell aren't going to build their own network of roads for the dumb thing to drive on.
I have no idea how much it costs to install a cell tower, but it has to be a million bucks or more for the average thing. Satellites are getting cheaper thanks to companies like Space X, and the long march of miniaturization. Add in the cost of data switching on a massive scale. I'm sure it's a $50billion deal. Probably not gonna happen, but you just never know. 1 billion iPhone users x $50/month is a lot of cheddar!
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Edit: Another thought occurred to me regarding Apple's modem development. It is likely that Intel's difficulties had as much to do with die-shrinking as 5G technology. My guess is that Apple will be focusing on shrinking the die. Intel likely could not (because they are using their own fab processes rather than Asian fab techniques) which was holding Apple back. Now that Apple owns the designs and the 5G tech, they can use their own fab partners rather than relying on Intel.