After a societal collapse there's probably still a need for valuable infrastructure such as power grid, etc which would require comms - and due to reduced manpower (or other hazardous conditions outside), satellite-based comms might actually become preferable to terrestrial/wire-based comms.

Sure, but I doubt “survive zombie apocalypse” is a line item on any private satellite provider’s execution plan.

I’m sure they have a BCDR plan, and I’m sure it says something like “in case of everything going down, we have bigger problems on our hands”.

We never had an “apocalypse” scenario, but we had an “all of our dependent services are permanently down” to which the response was :shrug:

Big problem is that all the satellite services need ground stations that need power and likely depend on the internet. It would be good if they worked without internet but that would take work that won’t be done without incentives.

Ham radio would be fallback. The problem is that the technology is old and the bandwidth is limited. Long distance radio is in HF band, and the whole band is slightly bigger than Wifi channel. It also isn’t reliable cause depends on the ionosphere. It would be like going back 30 years.

Coordinating with loved ones that are scattered around a region. Lora radio is one option but the range is limited.

I’m disappointed that LTE Direct didn’t take off. It sounds like it has to be builtin to firmware or even requires hardware changes, and manufacturers didn’t add it. Probably cause couldn’t see way to make money.

It would be perfect for short-range comms, replacing walkie-talkies and messaging. It would work with phones that people already have.

For mid-range, cell towers on hilltops with link to other places would work. Except I heard cell towers need a lot of network infrastructure to work. And may consume too much power to work off solar. Simple solar-powered, self-contained cell sites would be useful for disasters and other events.