Mesh networking harnessed for mobile

8 Apr 2008 | 07:42 BST

By Tony Dennis

A MEANS of harnessing mesh networking for mobile telephony has been developed by Swedish firm, Terranet.

Although no working prototype handset presently exists, the company claims to have firm orders for 300,000 units already.
Unfortunately, it doesn't envisage being able to deliver on those orders fully until 2011.

Rather than use a cell structure like most existing mobile networks, Terranet's phones will create a mesh of up to seven local 'nodes'.

The company envisages that these phones will have a range of between one and ten kilometres [0.6 and 6 miles]. They'll work at 2.4 GHz just like Bluetooth and Wi-fi.

Terranet also reckons that the meshed handsets could be connected to an IP gateway so that local calls could be connected long distance via VoIP.

This technology has numerous potential applications. They could work like push-to-talk/walkie-talkie phones for example.

The business model which Terranet has settled on forsees billions of its phones eventually being sold into third world markets where standard cellular technologies – like GSM – are too expensive to implement.

The INQ has seen a working demonstration of the technology in action and predicts that Terranet will soon receive a prestigious award from Red Herring for innovation for it.

Until the company can show a working handset – which it expects to manufacture in Sweden for between $30 and $75 - it's hard to judge whether this radical alternative to GSM will succeed.

Either the company founders are geniuses, or they're start raving bonkers to attempt to challenge entrenched mobile players like Nokia and Ericsson. µ

© 2007 Incisive Media Investments Ltd. 2007