I saw this today
http://blog.maidsafe.net/2015/02/23/what-is-the-safe-network/It explains what the SAFE Network is, and could be. It mainly concentrates on the differences between it and 'normal' internet.
As things stand currently, it does require internet service providers (but the article also mentions mesh networks at the end).
SAFE has the potential to impact the physical layers of the existing Internet, through a reduced number of servers, as well as many of the software layers that transfer our data around the network. We have said in the past that we will replace the parts of the Internet and we think this will happen in time, but possibly complimenting the existing Internet is a better way to think about SAFE in the nearer term.
I think it's well worth investigating all that's going on with MaidSafe - it seems awesome.
Unfortunately I haven't yet managed to put enough time into this