A proposal to live in a free mobile telecommunications world

-- By DiegodelaPuente - 29 Sep 2011

1. Open your mind and start the revolution

By the end of 2010 there were approximately 5.3 billion mobile subscribers according to the International Telecommunication Union. In our world, this means that mobile network owners have an immense power and control over the daily life of millions who must submit to the will and rules of Carlos Slim or his colleagues. Therefore, I considered that a change of the scheme is needed and technology advances are the way to achieve it.

Unfortunately, since there are diverse economical and political interests related to this industry, mobile network operators and the U.S government have opposed to this change through the years and will continue to do so this journey is not going to be easy.

Lets get started! The first step to reach this objective is to understand that the world will not collapse when the network operators loose their power and that you are going to be able to make your mobile phone calls as always and maybe with better quality or other advantages.

Technological improvements have forced mobile operators to start using Voice over IP (VoIP? ), also called Internet Telephony in order to process phone calls. In this scenario voice is transformed into data packets that travel through the Internet to its destination where it is change back to voice. This is the same technology used by Skype or Google Talk to perform their calls between computers or other devices.

In that order of ideas, it might be a good question to ask why does we need a mobile operators if we are performing phone calls via Internet without their networks? Can you imagine having the possibility to be connected to a giant Wi-Fi network and be able to use a phone everywhere by just paying a minimum fee for the Internet access?

2. How to achieve the change?

Foster the usage of Wi-Fi enabled VoIP? phones (Wi-Fi phones) under super Wi-Fi environments. My intention is to gather technological improvements for a bigger purpose. Unsurprisingly, mobile network operators have underestimated this idea through the years, because they considered that it would represent a serious threat for their revenues. I consider this is a threat for their existence as we now know.

2.1 Super Wi-Fi networks

This is the concept of turning entire cities into wireless access zones and could be achieved by means of wireless mesh networks (WMN). A mesh in this concept is a series of radio transmitters that are able to communicate with at least two others, creating a cloud of radio signals through the city.

Mainly and among the most discussed projects during the past years for the construction of wireless mesh networks are (i) municipal wireless networks and (ii) the Freedom Box.

Many local governments from around the world have done various initiatives to build citywide Wi-Fi network and fortunately in almost every continent there has been a successfully deployment. Further and recently considering its importance, the European Commission had submitted to the European Parliament a proposal to spend almost 9.2 billion euros from 2014 to 2020 on pan-European projects to give citizens access to high-speed broadband networks.

In respect with the financial matters, the business model of local governments may vary between projects, but generally the service is rendered based on a fixed minimum payment that is adequately and proportionally divided according to each citizen’s income and that could be paid monthly or jointly with the annual tax payment.

In contrast from the positive previous statements, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission of U.S. have opposed this scheme due to their concern for the possibility to generate (i) unfair competition among private and public sectors in the wireless industry; and (ii) harmful interferences to local TV stations.

On the other hand, Freedom Box project is in full development through the promotion of their creators and in addition to the benefits listed for municipal wireless networks, among others, also avoids access and tracking user information and there is only a one-payment requirement to buy the equipment and not a monthly payment for the service.

2.2 Wi-Fi Phones

Wi-Fi phones likewise as computers use VoIP? technology to make calls over an Internet Protocol network, instead of the ordinary Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), but with the advantage that they are a lot more portable.

Particularly because of the rejection from mobile companies, diverse and massive production of pure Wi-Fi phones has not arrived to the markets. Nonetheless, you can buy a Linksys, Locktec or ZyXEL? phone with an open protocol for approximately US$90.00.

2.3 Advantages and disadvantages

The two most important advantages and disadvantages from my proposal are the following.

Advantages

- Free local and long distance calls.

- Minimum payment for high-speed Internet access for the citizens.

Disadvantages

- Poor quality or lost of signal because of immense amount of traffic in the bandwidth or bad climate conditions.

- VoIP? usage in phones limits the possibility to determine the precise location of a person who calls emergency services.

3. Conclusion

For the reasons stated above you have identified that freedom does not exist in today’s mobile telecommunications world.

Unless we try to change it, this situation would remain for many years, because it favors mobile companies power and incomes increase. You can try to cooperate to achieve my proposal or continue living submitted to the will of the owners of mobile companies. That is your choice.

Information sources

- http://transition.fcc.gov/voip/

- http://communication.howstuffworks.com/ip-telephony9.htm

- http://www.truphone.com/en-US/

- http://www.pcworld.com/article/129114/new_voip_service_for_cell_phones.html

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno-utopianism

- http://www.techdirt.com/search.php?tid=Predictions

- http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070215/002923.shtml

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_VoIP

- http://www.pcworld.com/article/129114/new_voip_service_for_cell_phones.html

- http://www.fring.com/what-is-fring

- http://www.laptopmag.com/advice/how-to/Turn-Your-Cell-into-a-VoIP-Phone.aspx

- http://drdobbs.com/mobility/202600424

- http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/dual-perspectives/2009/04/20/The-End-of-the-Cell/

- http://technostreak.com/web/mobile-voip-technology-and-its-future-affects-on-cell-phones/

- http://www.itproportal.com/2008/05/19/3-skypephone-mobile-phone-review-future-mobile-voip/

- http://www.technologybloggers.org/voip/the-future-of-telecommunication-belongs-to-mobile-voip/

- http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Present-and-Future-of-WiFi-VOIP-Phone-Technology&id=2197854

- http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/wifi-phone3.htm

- http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/wifi-phone2.htm

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- http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9962474-7.html

- http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/

- http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/material/FactsFigures2010.pdf

- http://www.jthtl.org/content/articles/V9I1/JTHTLv9i1_Lemley.PDF

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi

- http://gigaom.com/2004/07/04/review-zyxel-voip-wifi-phone/

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yft47G0328w

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hUtbUkBGpE&feature=related

- http://www.amazon.com/Locktec-WP04-WiFi-Wireless-Phone/dp/B003ZW920O

- http://computer.howstuffworks.com/municipal-wifi.htm

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_wireless_network

- http://www.wirelessphiladelphia.org/

- http://news.cnet.com/The-citywide-Wi-Fi-reality-check/2100-7351_3-5722150.html

- http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/10/muniwireless.shtm

- http://www.ftc.gov/os/2006/10/V060021municipalprovwirelessinternet.pdf

- http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/10/super-wif/#ixzz12OMKNRty

- http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/136391/

- http://legal.tmcnet.com/topics/legal/articles/220453-fcc-rules-limit-use-super-wi-fi-populated.htm

- http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/38635/?nlid=nldly&nld=2011-09-20

- http://www.fcc.gov/blog/fcc-announces-public-testing-first-television-white-spaces-database

- http://www.muniwireless.com/2011/10/19/european-commission-seeks-9-billion-for-broadband

- http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2007/09/wheres_my_free_wifi.html

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