[flangloria]

>But without government licensing and approval to back you up, a bunch of soldiers will arrive and simply rip out your gear.

This is the single most important obstacle here. Moreover, the bureaucratic procedures one has to jump through, to get such a thing approved, are extremely opaque.

In a country like India, where the government talks about stuff like "power to the people" all the time, when someone tries to implement such a network on the ground because it's really needed and helps fulfill the ruling party's election promises, they would be stopped by local authorities who would cite some vague law or seek some hefty bribe.

Either way, I appreciate that a company like facebook would spend so much time and money to do a nice thing like this.