Comment Re:Evolution... (Score 1) 225
I attended TEDx Adelaide last weekend where Paul Gardner-Stephen spoke about the Serval Project. There's two parts to the project. One is a mesh network that uses your phone's built in wi-fi. The other is more aimed at disaster relief and uses small phone towers that can be air dropped .
From the Serval Project site (link above)
Communicate anywhere, any time without infrastructure, without mobile towers, without satellites, without wifi hotspots, and without carriers. Use existing off-the-shelf mobile cell phone handsets. Use your existing mobile phone number wherever you go, and never pay roaming charges again. Communications should not just be for the fortunate — communication should be freely available to everyone, because we believe communication should be a human right. Serval enables mobile communications no matter what your circumstance: mobile communications in the face of disaster, in the face of poverty, in the face of isolation, in the face of civil unrest, or in the face of network black-spots. In short, Serval provides resilient mobile communications for all people, anywhere in the universe. Serval technology bridges the digital divide. We have proved that it is possible, using open source technology to create a mobile communications platform that benefits everyone, for all time, and changes the nature of telecommunications forever.