<<Seems like this gives you a lot of options when communications are swamped with users or just plain knocked out>>

Not sure what you mean by this, but when communications are knocked out, they are knocked out. One of the few (if not the only) types of communication that is 100% reliable when commercial communications is knocked out are the Amateur (HAM) radio bands. See 9/11and Katrina for example.
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It's not that life is so short, it's that you're dead for so long.