Haha I did some work looking after the network for an Aboriginal organisation in Alice Springs a few years ago. I remember the bad satellite services and slow ADSL that dropped when it rained..

The Meshtastic gear is very cheap, less than $100 per device. It is slow so limited in what you can do with it but I think it could be great for messaging in the case that mobile and fixed Internet services are unavailable. Assuming there are enough nodes to build a mesh.. Range is dependant on the devices and antennas etc used. I found some other nodes from my office in the CBD and exchanged a few messages there but nothing near home to properly test the range yet.. Now that I have 2 devices I will be able to test.