[Animats]

It can be done. It has been done, many times, from 1980s amateur packet radio to 2000s WiFi meshes. It's not inherently difficult. The hard problem is doing it with enough bandwidth to support cat videos. Netflix, and bloated web pages.

Suppose you had a distributed emergency IP radio network available that could provide 56Kb as long as at least one solar powered node per square kilometer was working. It would deliver VoIP and SMS, plus slow data connections. It would have HF links for long-haul connections even if telco services were unavailable. Who would use it?

FEMA tried distributing HF radios to first responder agencies, as a backup in case everything else went down. They can't even get most agencies to turn them on and talk for a monthly test.[1]

[1] https://www.dhs.gov/shares

[hossbeast]

What if nodes were incentivized to route traffic for others via crypto currency, e.g. proof of routing. Maybe then you could get real bandwidth.

[otoburb]

FirstNet[1] is a national first responder wireless network meant to address this concern. It's predicated on the assumption that network operators have already sunk in money to maintain resiliency in the face of emergencies, thus marrying federal funds with (what is now) private sector wireless infrastructure dedicated to first responders who generally always have and use their mobile phones.

[1] https://www.firstnet.gov/news/firstnet-partners-att-build-wi...