Is there a realistic scenario where cell phones are down and there is meaningful coordination being done over SiriusXM?
I don't particularly expect that there would be any effort to lean on AM either.
I don't particularly expect that there would be any effort to lean on AM either.
Having lived in disaster prone areas, people tend to be glued to the TV and radio before, during and after to get updates on the situation. TV and the internet are the first to go with the power, and even if you have a generator, that doesn't mean your internet connection will work. Radios will.
I don't think the OP's point was that SiriusXM was being used for emergency coordination, but the lack of a traditional radio in the car forgoes the existing emergency radio infrastructure.
Pretty rare to have people actually listen to AM radio or OTA TV for a massive chunk of the population.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/06/georgian-woman... (not a farmer but still)
No power, so no internet, cell service was overloaded and didn't work because of that, and well.. all that was was left was the radio.
I don't remember how I found out what was going on, and the university I was near still had their power station up, so I may have had better local comms (it was small and not real tied to the grid, mostly used for heating).
I certainly didn't spend time huddled around an AM radio.
TV and radio stations are centralized, there's no millions of AM cell towers distributed throughout regions. You tow the power car or a fuel truck next to the station and it'll be good for multiple days minimum.
During the time I had Sirius XM, the entire point for me was to continuous radio coverage as I drove across remote parts of Appalachia where cellular, AM, and FM coverage inconsistent.