Free Wireless Communications

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vitinho444
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Free Wireless Communications

Post by vitinho444 »

Hey guys, so i was watching a tv show while this question popped my head (again).

Some background first, I'm a teenager, 18 years old, and i admit i do like to use facebook to talk to people, i use Facebook Messenger whenever i get my hands on some Wifi since i dont have a data plan. And that brings the problem, my cellphone service is not the best for talking ... i pay too much for a text and voice message so i end up not sending either. But i can't shake this feeling that SOMEHOW it's possible to communicate WIRELESSly and for free, using a smartphone would be the best option ofc.

I first thought about the free communication protocols i know, there's bluetooth, there's AM and FM radio, there must be more... well i dont count Wifi (internet) since there must be a hotspot and that aint free.

So, naively, i think.. Ok bluetooth has range limits, FM too but its waayyy larger. So... why haven't anyone invented some kind of app that uses radio to send voice/text messages? I know radio has a frequency, FM goes from 89mhz to 120 if im not mistaken, and you would need a channel for each pair tunnel, but... there MUST be a way.
Maybe big communication companies are just hiding this like oil companies suppressing the electric car?

What you guys think?
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kaos78414
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Re: Free Wireless Communications

Post by kaos78414 »

Isn't this what "walky-talky" (two-way radio) apps do? (found an example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... idintercom) IE, press a button to communicate over a frequency? I would assume that it's too easy for people to listen in on frequencies for them to get popular - that or people already have unlimited talk plans in a lot of countries. But I admittedly don't know a lot about how radio channels work.

EDIT: My bad, my example link apparently only works over blue tooth or wifi. But I'm sure there are apps out there that work over FM.
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vitinho444
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Re: Free Wireless Communications

Post by vitinho444 »

Well was kinda that.. but that's not something people would use instead of whatsapp or something... Here in portugal those plans are too pricey unfortunately
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kaos78414
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Re: Free Wireless Communications

Post by kaos78414 »

I mean what I said shouldn't invalidate the idea. I don't live in Portugal, so I can't tell you how an app like that might be received.
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Xaos
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Re: Free Wireless Communications

Post by Xaos »

it'd be like the trucker/police radios. it wouldn't be good for private conversation and cellphones would have to have radios in them, basically
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hallsofvallhalla
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Re: Free Wireless Communications

Post by hallsofvallhalla »

There are only so many frequencies so you would have several people on one channel. I also think it would require too much power to send over AM or FM for a phone battery to push and not die quick.

I pay $99 a month for 3 phones with unlimited talk,text, and data so I never really worried about it enough to look.
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Jackolantern
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Re: Free Wireless Communications

Post by Jackolantern »

There is a very limited amount of radio frequencies that are good for communications. Most of them are either being used for commercial terrestrial radio, amateur radio (shorter wave), etc.

Those "push-to-talk" services that used to be built into cellphones and now are apps don't use any novel communication lines. The reason they exist is because they can reduce the amount of resources needed for a conversation by up to 90%. The point was that a large portion of connected communications is silence. You are silent when the other person is talking, and sometimes both people are silent. So instead of transmitting silence, push-to-talk only transmits actual talking one-way, which nets huge bandwidth savings.

I hate to say it, but I don't think there are any unused lines of communication currently in existence. If anything isn't being used, it is because it doesn't work well for wireless communications. Pretty much everything has been commercialized. To find anything new would require some serious science and experimentation.

The next real developments in free wireless communications will likely come from both Municipal WiFi and corporate sponsorship.

EDIT: Oh, and yeah Halls has a point. True AM or FM waves require a huge amount of power to transmit over a large area. Remember that radio waves are just another form of light, except we can't see them. Imagine how much power it would take to power a light bulb that could be seen from several miles away.
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vitinho444
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Re: Free Wireless Communications

Post by vitinho444 »

99$ a month for 3 phones is way too much... Here in Portugal you pay 10$ / month for unlimited text and voice for your network users. But i think this is a me problem only ahaha

@Jacko
Well you're right. Wifi is that future but nobody will give it for free.. :(

Here in Portugal theres a corporation (a ISP) that has wifi hotspots spread all over the country, using home routers as hotspots. That's good but when im on the train or simply on the street i cant connect to those :( so i need to actually spend money. That sucks.
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a_bertrand
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Re: Free Wireless Communications

Post by a_bertrand »

The only possible opening would be something like a vortex transmission:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/vo ... s-way/2538

That would maybe make the bandwidth big enough. Yet, to have a "free" communication, it would mean no infrastructure from some company otherwise this company would need to gather some money to pay the infrastructure. So if you don't want any infrastructure you need to have direct connection between the devices. Sadly in a city this is certainly the worse case scenario as buildings will interfere with your possible transmissions.

To make a long story short, you can't simply expect to have a net of devices working without infrastructure and get good performances AND security. The star kind of communication we have yet is in my opinion still the best option.
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vitinho444
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Re: Free Wireless Communications

Post by vitinho444 »

Hum so bottom line free is past :)
Don't get me wrong by saying that is too over priced, its not actually.. but i just cant afford it :(
Maybe when i make my own money i can do it, but till then i just have to use wifi :)
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