[nocha]

And what happens when a hurricane takes down the cell tower? Or the power is out for days and the cell tower's backup batteries run dry?

Decentralised radio is essentially ham radio. Individual units talking directly to each other, without relying on a single point of failure (the cell company). As others have said above, ham radio is a godsend in some situations. If you use the right bands, you can talk halfway around the world while running off batteries and using a wire thrown over a tree for an antenna.

[driverdan]

Most mobile radio operators rely on repeaters which is a form of centralization. You can communicate without them but need to be closer or have the right equipment ahead of time.

[redog]

> you can talk halfway around the world while running off batteries and using a wire thrown over a tree for an antenna.

And then what when everyone talks. Isn't it already regulated for this same reasoning? Seems to me a combination of open protocols and mesh networking would be better than government restricted ham.

[zeckalpha]

Much mesh networking innovation is happening in ham communities. Go check it out.