P2P Cell Phones?
from the who-needs-a-centralized-cell-tower dept
Joe Schmoe writes "SRI's PacketHop software is embedded in the phone. The signal of the device then jumps from handset to handset – which must also have the software – until it reaches its final destination. Theoretically, it could work from New York to California if there were enough phones lined up in the right places. Realistically, this would be a solution for short-distance calls..." I've heard people talking about just such an idea for years, but haven't seen much in the way of implementation. It certainly does bring up a lot of issues that I think would have to be answered before this could be useful. I'm also not convinced that this is really any more stable. Suddenly you're relying on a larger number of less stable sites to carry your call. In crowded areas, it probably helps, but in other areas it could make things worse.
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WiFi Phones?
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