Such things will never happen.
a pity.. because that would give a real ingame atmosphere.
"local (near town)"
would spit out some ´faction defined messages´ near tc controlled towns, sure a repeating spam of faction related stuff.
already suggested somewhere.
"trade" tell us the town related offers who actually everybody shout in town (with less spam indeed,maybe some controlled board)
already suggested somewhere.
and also I would be tempted to listen at the "help" channel from time to time, just to help someone.
i know, utopic.
to the topic, i agreed that there is a unfairly disadvantage for people who can´t or won´t use outgame communication.
edit: and sending distress signal should use AP.