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 is needed and technology advances are the way to achieve it.

Unfortunately, since there are 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.

Lets get started! The first step to reach this objective is to understand that the world will not collapse when network operators disappear, because you will have the possibility to make mobile phone calls, but in a different manner.

Technological improvements have forced mobile operators to use Voice over IP (VoIP? ), also called Internet Telephony, to process phone calls. In this scenario voice is transformed into data packets that travel through the Internet to its destination. This is the same technology used by Skype or similar to perform calls between computers or other devices.

In that sense, it is necessary to ask why do we need mobile network operators if we already perform phone calls via other means like the Internet? Can you imagine having the possibility to connect to a giant Wi-Fi network and 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 under super Wi-Fi environments. My intention is to gather two of the most advanced improvements in science for a bigger purpose. Unsurprisingly, mobile network operators have underestimated this idea through the years; on the ground that they considered that it would represent a serious threat for their revenues. Instead, I consider this as a threat for their existence.

The principal advantage that can be obtained by this proposal is free local and long distance calls paying a minimum fixed fee for high-speed Internet access.

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. 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 municipal wireless networks. Many local governments from around the world have done various initiatives to build citywide Wi-Fi networks and fortunately some of them had a successful deployment. Even though, it is certain to admit that technological improvements are needed to obtain a high quality product, since poor quality or lost of signal can be generated by immense amount of traffic in the bandwidth or by bad climate conditions.

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 to benefit from its positive attributes, referring to the U.S. government as an example, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opposed to this scheme, among others, due to their concern for the possibility to generate unfair competition among private and public sectors in the wireless industry and harmful interferences to local TV stations.

The U.S. government dramatically changed its position about this topic when in 2006 FTC listed Wi-Fi first in its list of major technological used to provide citywide wireless Internet access, and then in 2010 FCC, in its National Broadband Plan, referred to Wi-Fi only as an important complement to licensed fixed and mobile networks. What happened between these years? There was a great pressure from telecommunications companies that even achieved that several states such as Pennsylvania passed laws restricting public Wi-Fi.

Moreover, some courts deferring to FCC’s interpretation, have ascertained that it has the regulatory authority over wireless Internet access points mounted on utility poles. This is another legal barrier to avoid the deployment of citywide Wi-Fi networks, because of its power to change the actual standards.

2.2 Wi-Fi Phones

Wi-Fi phones likewise computers use VoIP? technology to make calls. This means that they do not need to be supported over the classical mobile networks architecture, they only need to be in a Wi-Fi covered area to start functioning.

The rejection of mobile companies to this initiative have delayed the massive production of pure Wi-Fi phones or the development of new software that can be used in actual GSM, CDMA or WCDMA to allow the performance of phone calls over the Internet without having to be realized in a mobile network. Nonetheless, you can buy a Linksys, Locktec or ZyXEL? phone with an open protocol for approximately US$90.00.

I believe that once the construction of super Wi-Fi networks start, the most important manufactures of mobile devices are going to turn their eyes into this new filed and build hundreds of new models of phones that will be supported only in the Internet network. I can guarantee that when that day arrives mobile networks will face its end.

3. Conclusion

You have identified that freedom does not exist with today’s mobile network operators.

Unless we try to change the regulatory policies conducted by the U.S. government by showing an evident interest in this matter, this situation would remain for many years, because it favors mobile operators power and income increase. You can try to cooperate to achieve my proposal or continue living submitted to the will of the owners of mobile networks. 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

- http://www.broadvoice.com/wifi_voip_phone.html

- 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

It would be helpful to put links into the body of the text, where they support individual statements, in addition to tossing together a source list at the end. Such a list is more useful if you comment on the sources, to help people to decide what to read.

Some technical issues should be identified. Handing off phone calls from cell to cell when the handset is moving (potentially rapidly) during a call involves routing activity that is not the same as that provided by the ordinary Internet routing protocols. Higher power levels than those that are within the regulatory framework for 802.11 can be required in order to reach handsets without special antennas in sparsely populated landscape.

The nature of the economic disruption involved can probably be indicated by a couple of sentences summarizing the earnings of mobile network providers. The political consequences can also be summarized briefly, so that the reader can see why you confidently expect governments to be uninterested in freeing personal telecomms.

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