"Well, cell phones are a good comparison for the functionality, but not so much for the infrastructure..."

Uh-oh. Nerd mode activated.

"The signals actually aren't reliant on towers, since they need to be operable on any planet we visit, with no guarantee that they'd have that kind of a network already in place. So since they need to work off a more robust system that doesn't require any extra structures in place -"

Please stop him, Videl. Before it's too late.