Comment by blueflow
This article makes more sense if its coming from a city where only the large telco's are present.
Here Dresden (Germany), there are several volunteer organisations who laid wires through the city or have microwave-antennas (AG DSN, Bürgernetz, Freifunk), and there is a recently founded internet exchange run by volunteers (DD-IX). So as long as we have power, we got our own internet.
It sounds like the author is envisaging a system that works without power (as long as the batteries last).