April 23, 2010
Why We Need Open Commons on Frequency Bands
We have been harping for a while it would be nice if one of the old guard bands from the 700mhz auction (eg old analog TV) were Open Sourced and free to use. Now I am sure you are saying to yourself why the heck for?
Well how about Open Source cellular service? And ladies and gentlemen there is even a project to do it! OpenBTS. The interesting thing is, it does not take millions to implement. Most of the components are cheap or free. The radio xmtter is a Open Hardware project sponsored by the FSF. Essentially its a computer controlled power amp. Call management is handled by another Open Source project — Asterisk. Wrap some cabling and ISP support and you have Open Source Cellular. Its already been proven operational at this years Burning Man event. Its running on the island of Niue.
Downside? Well one, unless you are in an area with no cellular service, you can’t operate it. The reason of course is interfence with the current incumbent carrier that has the space. That is why we need an Open Commons area for technologies like this to be experimented with. . We need it now!
Filed under DIY, Networking, new technology by Dr. Dog
Comments on Why We Need Open Commons on Frequency Bands »
If you hadn’t noticed, the only talk out of the FCC is about more AUCTIONS and more CENTRAL PLANNING AND CONTROL under the guise of net neutrality and a broadband plan. An I though the Bush FCC appointments were horrible! I’ve been thinking lately it may make sense to start forming co-ops to license some of that ultra high band spectrum. Teh trick is to form a non profit that the duopoly lawyers can’t bury.
» More Open Telephony @ 7:37 pm
[...] covered OpenBTS here. That was an FOSS based cellular implementation. The only problem? You have to be in a cellular [...]