A low-cost, low-power DIY cellular data network
August 29, 2011
Professor Kurtis Heimerl of the University of California, Berkeley has created a do-it-yourself GSM (global system for mobile communications, a worldwide cell-phone standard) cellular data network for areas (such as remote villages) with limited power and network resources, reports Shareable.
The network can be deployed off-the-grid because only low power is required, using solar or wind, and no connection to a cell-phone company is required.
What if devices like this were used to connect to an autonomous Internet through a collectively owned satellite? For example, Buy This Satellite is an effort to crowdfund enough money to purchase the communications satellite TerreStar-1. Non-profit Ahumanright aims to use the satellite to provide free Internet access in the developing world.