The peer-to-peer mobile phone has arrived.
TerraNet, a Swedish company, has developed technology that allows users to speak on handsets without the need for a mobile phone base station. That makes it ideal for more remote regions, as the company is finding with trials in Ecuador and Tanzania.
Each handset is adapted to become a peer, enabling it to be a node between other handsets, so each set extends the range of the system; currently each set has a range of about a kilometer. Switch on a TerraNet phone and it searches for others, then as it finds them it connects and adds to the network. The more phones, the greater the network, as each set effectively doubles the 1km. distance. Dial a number and if the person is within range, the call is completed.
