Re:Awala: The computer network on which humankind can rely
by lxgr on Monday September 30, 2024 @11:47AM
(#41698529)
> Something that forwards short text messages via phone to phone WiFi until they reach some place with more connectivity would be helpful in emergencies.
Even in non-emergencies this would be extremely useful! Bluetooth LE has hundreds of meters of device-to-device range on the newer modulation schemes and would be excellent for this; low-frequency things like LoRa would be even better and could probably easily incorporated into phones, given that mobile networks use adjacent frequencies and the power amplifiers are probably already there.
It's a real shame that Apple has been curbing even the one P2P communications tool deployed at scale (Airdrop) supposedly out of censorship concerns, and given that, I unfortunately don't see something like "P2P iMessage" becoming a thing any time soon.
Even in non-emergencies this would be extremely useful! Bluetooth LE has hundreds of meters of device-to-device range on the newer modulation schemes and would be excellent for this; low-frequency things like LoRa would be even better and could probably easily incorporated into phones, given that mobile networks use adjacent frequencies and the power amplifiers are probably already there.
It's a real shame that Apple has been curbing even the one P2P communications tool deployed at scale (Airdrop) supposedly out of censorship concerns, and given that, I unfortunately don't see something like "P2P iMessage" becoming a thing any time soon.