WiFi

[ONe HuNg lOW]

Why doesn't someone make a point to point WiFi phone.  This way no one need to by service you just need to be within a mile or two.  I think is great idea, I will help anyone with the dedication to do it. Just to busy to do it on my own.   

[Sionyn]

thats called mesh networking

[NiHaoMike]

Something similar to what you're describing already exists, except it uses its own "network" and is called CB radio...

[tom66]

There were phones available a few years ago with "push to talk" features. Not sure if that was similar. Never seemed to work - perhaps relied on network cooperation - hah, unlikely to occur.

You can buy Skype phones which use wifi when available to get free/very cheap calls. Particularly useful in busy town areas where free wifi is plentiful.

[IanB]

Why doesn't someone make a point to point WiFi phone.  This way no one need to by service you just need to be within a mile or two.  I think is great idea, I will help anyone with the dedication to do it. Just to busy to do it on my own.   

Because:

(a) I'm pretty sure wireless networking is legally limited to a short range like 100 ft or so
(b) It takes a lot of power for two devices to communicate over a longer range. Cellphones work by having massive power in the cell tower transmitter, and massive amplification in the tower receiver. Two phones in a point to point configuration can't do that.

Ask yourself: why are there no CB radios as small as cellphones?

[amvakar]

In addition to what everyone else has said, power consumption would be ungodly. The phones would always be in a call and hunting for more peers, and it would still be less reliable than traditional cell service because a typical cell tower does not walk into an elevator or run out of batteries. With all that, you might be able to get criminals to buy them for the decentralization.

[G7PSK]

The police in the UK have PMR's that also are a cellphone, I believe that such radios are also available to hams in the US, they are not legal here in the UK for some reason, as is patch through.   

[jeremy]

Hi,

Mesh phones have been tried. The major problems:

-> Routing between nodes is horrifically difficult. Nodes constantly enter and leave the network as well as move, meaning that the shortest path between nodes changes constantly. The only real solution so far is to do a massive broadcast, but that means you can't have many nodes transmitting at once or you will run out of bandwidth. However, this is an active area of research.
-> Because of above, the latency is extreme in reasonably sized networks (on the order of seconds). Not really suitable for phone conversations.

If you are talking about only single hop, everyone else has covered this nicely

[madires]

Why doesn't someone make a point to point WiFi phone.  This way no one need to by service you just need to be within a mile or two.  I think is great idea, I will help anyone with the dedication to do it. Just to busy to do it on my own.   

WiFi has got a mode to connect several devices in an ad hoc network (without any AccessPoint) already. AFAIK there's an extension in work to make it even easier. As there are power limitations WiFi doesn't work for a mile or two with a standard antenna. You might buy a pair of PMR radios for about 30 Euros.

[ONe HuNg lOW]

So what about many homes having WIFI already and using them has micro base station that way we leverage what is already in society.  The only problem is that you need to have at least one house within a mile of eachother.  This would work well in the city but out in the country good look.  I think the cell phone companies will not allow it.  Oh well thanks for all the comments.

[NiHaoMike]

There's already a phone that uses WiFi when available and falls back to cell service otherwise.
http://www.republicwireless.com/

The main problem is that its service is more expensive than a prepaid plan combined with a (free) Google Voice account.