Back then they could wave their hands and correctly say there were so many CB radios they'd be enough for post-attack civilian communications, at least at short

Back then they could wave their hands and correctly say there were so many CB radios they'd be enough for post-attack civilian communications, at least at shorter ranges. But that doesn't mean you couldn't get by with many fewer working radios, and FRS and GMRS equipment is out there in some quantities, in addition to hams, many of whom are set up for emergency communications And as noted by jcrawfordor cell phones are a zillion times more ubiquitous than CB radio sets ever were. In fact, noting the pattern that many less developed 3rd World counties leapfrogged over land lines straight into cell service, following that pattern in the rebuilding would probably work out pretty well. ADDED: and WiFi equipment is also ubiquitous, and with directional antenna can travel pretty far. So we'll have quite a bit of stuff to work with, and people are pretty good at cobbling together solutions for problems like this.