If global radio communications systems are disrupted, what is the alternative?

Question

An event has occurred several thousand kilometers from the surface of the Earth. Let's assume some sort of tear in the universe has appeared, from which extra-dimensional or exotic energy is pouring out. It has affected all wireless communications globally.

1. What alternative wireless communication form exists that might survive such disruption i.e. is less prone to interference than radio waves.

Now I'm not quite certain what affect varying radio frequencies and wavelengths have on communication distance and resistance to interference, so:

2. Is there any science or science-adjacent justification for why some kinds of radio signals still work while others don't?

3. Alternatively, can providing more power to a radio transmission overcome such interference or not (and I know that's asking a lot because we don't know the precise nature of the interference, but could that make sense in some way)?

4. Finally, is there a possibility that wired communication might also be disrupted?

Answer 1

What alternative wireless communication form exists that might survive such disruption i.e. is less prone to interference than radio waves.

Free-space optical communication. Lasers and LEDs and photodiodes and so on. It can only be line of sight, and long range links are generally point-to-point, but it does exist and work right now. You couldn't keep your mobile phone in your pocket any more, but other than that these things could be replaced with new technologies and carry on working. Quite a lot of these devices are already in use and in production, though getting enough out to relink the radio-networked bits of world will probably take some time.

Remember that communication with sattelites is only line-of-sight... launching a new optical-only satellite constellation would be a major undertaking, but it is just money and time. The technology is already available.

Is there any science or science-adjacent justification for why some kinds of radio signals still work while others don't?

Shortwave bounces off the ionosphere. Microwaves can be scattered off the troposphere. VHF and the like is line of sight, mostly, but you can still do stuff like bounce it off the moon.

These are all very, very difference mechanisms because the behaviour of radio changes drastically at different frequency ranges. One mechanism won't break them all, unless it is basically magic. A deliberately engineered attempt to break all of them could be done with force majeure.

There are many techniques like frequency hopping spread spectrum, and clever communication protocols like WSPR which are highly resilient to noise and jamming.

Alternatively, can providing more power to a radio transmission overcome such interference or not

Depends entirely on the nature of the interference. Handwave it as you wish.

Finally, is there a possibility that wired communication might also be disrupted?

Doubtful, at best. Something like a Carrington event might affect some radio and some wired communications, and of course you're discussing something that may as well be magic, so you can feel free to define its scope. Fibre optic certainly not.

Answer 2

You need bullet proof, unassailable technology to solve this problem!

The Post

No radio to be disrupted. No electricity or wires needed. Before there ever was radio based communications or even the telegram, there was the Post Office.

A letter requires no fancy equipment to make and no exotic energy defeating technology to deliver.

Answer 3

The original form of radio — spark gap transmitters — using morse code is highly resistive to disruption. CW morse communications are the military’s fall back solution in the advent of nuclear war because standard AM/FM/PSK/FSK communications are likely to fail.

Also time synchronous communications are very robust. Things like cells phones and towers use this technique. The synchronous nature of the encoding allows the receivers to accurately demodulate carriers] signals that are below the thermal noise of the universe. I am not suggesting our current cell system would keep working, just that a scheme using similar mathematics could be developed to permit wireless communications in the environment you are describing.

It is imaginable that fiber optics systems would be unaffected by any interference you are describing and the majority of the internet is now running on a fiber backbone — as I understand it. If copper lines carrying analog signals are disrupted then it would seem that a similar digital comms system like DSL would continue working

As observed before, lasers and photodetectors could be rigged to constructed to provide point to point communications. Line of Sight is straight forward. And, under special circumstances, with proper long IR wavelengths, long haul skip communication is possible — again using digital recovery techniques.

Answer 4

As a follow-on to elemtilas's answer, there's visual signalling. Semaphore telegraphs were very effective in their time; a heliograph or blinker light remains useful even today.

Just like the post office (or its distributed version, the messenger / runner system), this requires relatively simple technology. As long as the two stations can see each other's signals -- which can be done at a longer distance than seeing the other station -- they can communicate with each other.