It would be an event. If all the consumer phone communications went away so that people are left without the ability to buy/sell or communicate as normal for say, 10 days, it would force people to talk to their neighbors and create a mini government amongst themselves for the duration. They would establish some degree of order. Some places would do better than others. As long as most utility services stayed on and some, like ham radio etc, stayed on most people would work together to get through it. America needs such an experience to fully drive home the responsibilities of citizenship.