I don't think anyone's talking about mesh networks, are we? As far as wifi vs cell networks, that's a huge discussion. The biggest issues are ones of range and quality of service; cell networks are designed to go kilometers and provide basic guarantees for voice bandwidth. Wifi networks are not. However, given enough spare bandwidth (rough given the tragedy of commons) and in a dense urban situation, there's no particular reason you couldn't do all of your communications through one of these free networks.
I'd be happy to field any more specific questions on the differences. On Tuesday, February 5, 2013, Yaw Anokwa wrote: > Independent of the regulatory challenges, even small scale community > WiFi networks very hard to pull off. Shaddi (of TIER fame) wrote about > this a few years back. He concludes, "I'm not saying mesh networks > don't work ever...What I am saying is that unplanned wireless mesh > networks never work at scale." > > Related: > http://serverfault.com/questions/72767/why-is-internet-access-and-wi-fi-always-so-terrible-at-large-tech-conferences > > On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 12:01 AM, ashish makani > <[email protected]<javascript:;>> > wrote: > > Hi Folks > > > > Came across this interesting story > > > > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/tech-telecom-giants-take-sides-as-fcc-proposes-large-public-wifi-networks/2013/02/03/eb27d3e0-698b-11e2-ada3-d86a4806d5ee_story.html > > > > Excerpt: > > "The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the > > nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to > make > > calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month. > > > > The proposal from the Federal Communications Commission has rattled the > $178 > > billion wireless industry, which has launched a fierce lobbying effort to > > persuade policymakers to reconsider the idea, analysts say. That has been > > countered by an equally intense campaign from Google,Microsoft and other > > tech giants who say a free-for-all WiFi service would spark an explosion > of > > innovations and devices that would benefit most Americans, especially the > > poor." > > > > This proposal is in the US, but would be interesting to see, if > developing > > countries with big user bases, could also use large scale public wi-fi > n/ws > > instead of/in addition to, mobile telephony n/ws. > > > > Also, what about the relative costs of building a large scale public wifi > > n/w as opposed to a mobile telephony n/w, in a world where increasingly > data > > dominates voice. > > > > cheers > > ashish > > > > _______________________________________________ > > change mailing list > > [email protected] <javascript:;> > > http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change > > > _______________________________________________ > change mailing list > [email protected] <javascript:;> > http://changemm.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/change >
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