It appears as if <Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com> wrote:
|
|I sympathize with the irritiation Ken and others have shown
|RE the structural monopoly the phone company has on the
|"last mile", and I'd really love to find a way to break this
|monopoly. Let's agree on the goals:
| --bottom-up networking to replace the Phome Company.
| --fully-distributed switches under control of individuals
| --Massive bandwidth available at nearly zero cost
| --full support for mobile users
I agree fully.
Where I live we have a number of GSM phone networks on 900 and 1800 GHz. The technology sends packets of data to and from mobile phones. With minor changes to this technology (and otehrs like it on other parts of the planet) it could carry random data, not just sound.
IMO the goal should be to have a stationary infrastructure which does not care about what your traffic contains. The operators would gain a great increase of users of their networks if they widened their protocols from only voice. The Internet explosion revisited.
With such a network available at a low price for the owners of the terminals of the network, using a smart looking or discrete wearable (or looking like a Borg if that is your Thang) you could access data on the Internet virtually anywhere and anywhen.
You could build your own virtual networks on top of this infrastructure. You personal information searching agent software could then search the Internet for relevant information at any time.
With a high bandwidth connection you can exchange video streams with other units in real-time, giving you interactive videophone.
PS.
A local home electronics dealer sent some junk advertisement to me. Among other stuff they sell a satellite dish which you use in your Internet surfing. Traffic from your site to the Internet goes through the telco, but the response comes through the satellite. Apparently the satellite solution gives higher bandwidth. No comment on the security of your satellite traffic, as usual. Encryption? Probably not. Requires a PC with Windows 95, 98 or NT4.