Don't cell phones do this now as they move down the highway from tower to tower? I realize the tower does some of the heavy lifting, but the method of operation seems as if it already exists. Or is it Apples and Oranges?

route calls between them (IT professionals correct me if I'm wrong...), but I don't believe they use packet-switching technology a la P2P. What these phones do is enable a towerless communication structure that is fully deployed by users. If you want to talk to someone more than 2km away you will need some sort of base station, but that can be as simple as a PC with a good net connection.

In theory, anyone could set up their own cell phone network with a PC, an internet connection, and some of these phones. That's what's so amazing and potentially liberating about it.

There are some concerns about power drain (phones always transmitting) and spectrum usage/overlap, but I can't wait to see where this technology goes. There's still a potential bottleneck at the > 2km range since you need an internet connection--and that could be owned and clamped down on by a telecom.

Edit: Also, cell phones don't directly connect to each other--they need a tower. These phones direct-connect.

I can connect to the internet with my cell phone now, and use it as a modem. So if the 'new' phones could network up to 2km, and also use already present tech to dial out to the tubz, then it would appear all the right stuff is off the shelf ready, 'cept the code, 'course.

well, unless you have a phone with a wireless network card in it, you're basically connecting to the internet over the phone network.
So your phone connects to a tower, and the tower connects to the internet for you. Which means the telco is in control.

You do get phones which also include wireless network cards and can switch to a wireless network connection whenever one is available (and will use voip over wireless network rather than the telco network whenever a network is available)

Phone connections (until this innovation) have always been end-to-end (the routing is figured out when you dial the number). Handing off a cell call between towers was a big deal (among techies) in the late 80s and early 90s, and handing off between carriers with reciprocity deals was a huge deal in the late 90s.

The internet was designed from day 1 to be able to route packet by packet. Translated to telephony, that's a few tenths of a second of voice at a time.

This technology is MANET - Mobile Adhoc NETworks. I worked on it in, umm, 2005. Yes, there has been consideration given to dynamic routing (hell, there are hundreds of academic papers on dynamic routing algorithms in MANETs). Yes, consideration has been given to hopping, battery power, etc.

One of things we thought that people could use this technology for was for a bunch of friends at a concert sharing different video streams with their friends.

Yeah, it won't fly in the US - not with the license fees needed to be recouped by carriers and the customary large margins that they are used to.

Once it's everywhere there is nothing anybody can do about it.

Yep, for end-user applications, the frequency band was the free (i.e. license-free) Wifi (2.4GHz). But, since the original post advertised as 2Km range, I am presuming it is using FRS frequencies (i.e. same frequency as the two-way family radios you can get at Best Buy).

Most cell phones have FM receivers at public FM radio freq built-in (Sony Walkman phones). They might have added on FM transmitters/receivers but tuned to FRS frequencies. The 2Km range is a dead give away.

The same technology can be used by firefighters or police (then they would use the first responder frequencies) or by the military (then they would use mil frequencies).

a "tower." But its one I, personally, can buy, put in my pocket, and carry around with me. Very nice, imo.

So that goes directly to "availability of towers". One need fixed infrastructure to build a reliable service. A single channel cell site is inexpensive, $50 (see below). Thousand of multichannel high capacity cell sites (which is what we all use), is expensive.

You can do this, more or less, with TMobile's Hotspot@Home, that runs GSM over IP through your wifi router at home or in the office, or starbucks, or your favorite wifi hotspot. The Nokia 6086 will switch from wifi cell to wifi cell as you move.

I hve one,as does my wife. The cut in cell bill was 50%.

...military comms nets now deployed are mesh based / mesh enabled. There's also been some emergency services deployments as well. The potential advantages are so great, particularly in the context of a homeland security "event" that I think this architecture will probably end up with some serious traction. The notion that you can drop a mish mash of folks and agencies together while surging resources into a disaster area is one that would give any mission planner warm fuzzies. I always try and tell folks if you don't have a comms plan, you don't have shit - but if you've got one, your capacity and particularly your resiliency goes up enormously.

"The spectacle of this great nation which does not know its own mind is as humiliating as it is dangerous." ~ Walter Lippmann