[lug] Linux and the (wireless) phone at the Burning Man festival

[Nate Duehr]

  On 8/31/2010 7:55 AM, Davide Del Vento wrote:
> http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/083010-open-source-voip-cell-phones-at-burning-man.html
>
> Or in other words, http://openbts.sourceforge.net looks pretty cool!

Reading up on this in other forums, the ONLY reason the FCC allowed the 
experimental license required to run OpenBTS and GSM base station 
functionality, was that out that far in the Black Rock Desert, they 
probably won't interfere with any of the carrier networks.

Cool software, but totally useless in the real world of FCC spectrum 
licenses and frequency coordination, anywhere but the middle of a 
desert.  :-)

(Thus why Google and others are paying the super-big-bucks to get 
spectrum, and paying off Congresscritters right and left to get the FCC 
to break many-decades old best-practices for eliminating/avoiding 
interference.  As each FCC Commissioner is bought-and-paid-for, we'll 
see more things like the "whitespace" argument used, and then we'll 
watch most of our gadgets fight interference issues with other 
unlicensed gadgets.  e.g. 802.11 and Bluetooth... same unlicensed 
spectrum, and they don't play nicely together.)

Spectrum works better when it's actively managed, and ENGINEERS actually 
decide whether or not different modulation types will bother each 
other.  (Note: The American Taxpayer has, and is still in the process of 
paying multi-millions of dollars to clean up the mess than Nextel made, 
not buying Cellular spectrum, instead cramming digital signals in so 
close to Public Safety ... as in those folks that need radios to show up 
when you dial 911, you know? ... spectrum.

The FCC has less and less engineers who understand RF spectrum 
management, every year.

So... right now we're all paying for 700 MHz "re-banding" to move away 
from Nextel in the 800 MHz spectrum... even as Nextel got bought by 
Sprint and should have just died... according to me, and people I knew 
who worked for them... one of the worst-managed RF-technology companies 
ever...

Two-way radio manufacturers love all of this, though.  They're charging 
your State and Local agencies (even volunteer ones) somewhere in the 
range of $2000/radio.

Yes, that's $2000 for each cop car, fire truck, etc.  All in the name of 
"narrowbanding" and "going digital", which frankly, hasn't increased 
intelligibility or quality of their communications in the slightest.  In 
fact, firefighters have been concerned for some time now that agencies 
that have gone over to digital/highly-compressed audio streams are 
mostly NOT understandable when they're wearing oxygen masks/protective 
gear at fire scenes.

Also consider that when radios cost $2000 apiece, there aren't as many 
to go around.

This is just my own personal summary of the events of the last 10 years 
or so in two-way radio communications.  Analog "broadband" systems 
worked, but the world's appetite for gadgets that need RF spectrum is 
insatiable... and there's a lot of money flowing.  To make room, we're 
now putting first responder's lives at risk, as well as those they are 
serving.

Which sounds just about typical for our tech-crazed "consumer" society.

My opinions...

Nate