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Mobile Devices will themselves create the future Mobile Network

Submitted by saloob on Sat, 08/28/2010 - 23:06

Nearly all new devices being developed and sold at the time of writing this article will have WIFI. All smart phones from iPhone to Android-based phones will all have it.

Every mobile phone (even without WIFI) is designed to transmit and receive.

Technically, they are able to transmit and receive not only from a carrier's tower but also from each other.

Of course, Carriers would have been looking way too far into the future and disrupted their existing business model if they had have introduced this. It would have provided free communication for millions of users. But this is proprietary stuff and would have needed the carriers to go along with it. But, as we know, they always wait until it is too late before they wake up to the changing times and the reality - and so when it does come - it will hit them in their sleeping faces - just as iPhone did.

Mobile devices as WIFI Host-spot hubs

Now, consider linking up all the mobile devices so they all become part of a web of inter-connected transmitters and receivers (WIFI Host-spot hubs) - thus extending the distance of the network when they are in the range of the next person.

Assume all these people have a mobile device with WIFI and that the maximum quality distance to transmit and receive data and/or voice is 30 meters.

Neil is standing 30 meters away from Darryl.
Darryl is standing 30 meters away from Tomoko.
Neil is standing 60 meters away from Tomoko.

Neil -> 30 <-> Darryl <- > 30  <-> Tomoko

So, via Darryl's mobile device, Tomoko is able to gain access to Neil to make a call or share data (p-2-p).

Now, assume 30 meters to the left of Neil is a WIFI hot-spot that is connected to the Internet.

Via Darryl, then via Neil, Tomoko could access the Internet. So, with a VOIP Service, Tomoko could call her friend in the US thousands of miles away for free - p-2-p over the wireless network connected to the Internet.

Now, let's imagine - and if you have been on a train in Japan it is not difficult to do - that in any given area within a radius of 30-60 meters - you will constantly be in the vicinity of hundreds or even thousands of mobile devices.

Mobile devices becoming the Mesh-WIFI Host-spot hubs

Now we throw at you a concept called Mesh WIFI. What makes Mesh WIFI different from normal WIFI is a concept called "handover".

What this means is that when you move (roam) from one WIFI hot-spot to the next, the connection management will enable you to keep the connection as if it was the same hot-spot. This is extremely important for non-stop, non-interrupted streaming and VOIP. e-Mobile and WIMAX do a similar thing.

If you stand near a WIFI hot-spot and walk away - eventually the connection will drop and whatever you were doing will also stop.

So, now if we have ALL mobile devices throughout the world capable of being a Mesh WIFI "hub" - then we could theoretically have a free, organic mobile network, that is constantly moving, constantly connected and extending our communicative capabilities while reducing the cost at the same time.

How would this affect the carriers? Quite similar to how Google and Android will affect them with the release of the Google Voice service. They are a few steps away from being finished. Once the data and Voice can carry without the Carrier's towers and everything can pass through the Internet - they will disappear. The reason they can not sustain even with this "warning" is that they can't provide any good, competitive services to follow-through with - when the time comes when we have a world of free data and voice. Google, on the other hand, is very ready to provide such services.

So, how long will this take to happen? Well, it has started already in some places and people are now realising how much more they can do and how much more freedom they have with the smarter phones.

We predict within 2 years...

We predict that within 2 years the traditional carriers will fade away and be replaced by such a network.
The real power will be in the following going forward;

  • Device Makers - although it will be cut-throat and slim margins - but they are necessary components
  • Internet Backbone Providers - from connection centers out to homes and buildings via Fiber
  • SaaS and other Internet Service Providers - delivering;
    • Search
    • Content
      • News
      • Data
      • Music
      • Movies (3D)
    • VOIP
    • Personal & Business apps/services
      • Email
      • Calendar
      • Contacts/Buddies/Friends/Members
    • Many other growing and important services
      • Social Networks
      • Business Networks.
  • Digital Television
    • 3D
  • Gaming
    • 3D

We will keep updating this post with new information as we have it.

Just so you don't think we are making all this up, here are some references;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_network

http://www.servalproject.org/project/how-it-works

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/23/2991096.htm?site=thedrum

http://www.open-mesh.com/