Would you use this? Pros/Cons?
Why not? Your cell phone is really a two-way radio (microwave). This product merely seems to be substituting for cell towers.
Of course, with no satellite access, you’ll be limited to low-fi, local broadcasting (and to those that likewise have the same antenna).
If I’m understanding this correctly, it doesn’t extend the range of, or even hook you in to nearby cell networks, it just allows your smart phone to communicate with similarly equipped ones within its range.
So if I had a 300-acre wood, and I wanted to be able to call my friend Winnie on his cell phone, we could get one of these and use it like a walkie talkie. But we couldn’t call anyone outside the wood.
If I’ve got that right, then it’s a waste. Walkie talkies are cheap.
Could be very useful for Peace Corps volunteers and others in areas that aren’t necessarily remote but don’t have cell reception. To get emergency messages to the next volunteer over, I used to have to pay a motorcycle driver to ride over and physically hand her a note.
Also useful in areas where the government monitors and manipulates cell phone traffic.
If my quick read is correct - if you are just past the edge of coverage somewhere, it allows you to leave one device in the covered area and access the network through it. It’s basically doing bluetooth tethered data, at a distance.
I was thinking it could be useful for groups of hikers, or search-and-rescue types. You can communicate and share location data within the group, or with a base camp. Think of how they could use it; maybe an option where if your location stays the same for 15 minutes (like if you’re trapped or unconscious) it sends an alert and your friends would know right where to find you.
So who is their target audience?
This was my read as well. It sounds like you can relay low-bandwidth communication quite a distance through the devices.
The target audience would be people who hike, ski, climb, or work in areas that would normally require satellite phones for communication.
But how is it useful for that? It requires a similarly equipped phone within range to communicate with, which you’re not going to find in those areas, either, unless the device is almost universally adopted or you pre-arrange a contact, in which case why not pre-arrange a radio?
That’s my read. It doesn’t seem to say that you can extend the range of the cell phone network. You can’t get out of range, then walk 100 yards further and still be able to call Grandma because you plugged this thing in. There has to be another phone with one of these on it, and then you’ll be able to call that one. Reading it, I wanted this to be like one of those booster antennas you can put in your house if the cell service is bad - but one of those on steroids. It doesn’t seem to be that.
Or is it?
Seems a bit redundant. Its perhaps like a tracker, that an army could us.
HQ is sitting in the middle and can track everyone in their war games.
But otherwise who is actually going to use it ? Does a hotel stick it on their roof and let hikers use it ?
Do hikers who don’t stay at the hotel have to pay for it ?
If you own it and you stick it in a tree and go 5 miles away… someone else can steal it ?
Shoot it ? it will be a new sport … track the Tenna, shoot the tenna… prove your score on facebook …
So temporary use seems unlikely , and why wouldn’t permanent installs be mobile phone repeaters, or emergency only mobile phone via fixed line… or mobile phone via satellite phone.
They key to it’s utility is how well it can punch though concrete and steel in an urban environment to enable communication. Outdoors it doesn’t really appear have anything over a reasonably powerful set of VHF Walkie Talkies which you can get for a LOT less than $150-$300 a pair.
I probably misread this section:
My first read was that this device would be able to bridge its network to an existing cell network, so you would just need one node within cell range. You could then just leave a phone at base camp or wherever and have it act as a relay for messages.
The thing is, everyone has a cell phone. Even people without cell reception have cell phones. Even the poorest people in the world have cell phones. So one of these devices can help connect quite a few people who, for whatever reason, aren’t in cell reception-- without any additional costs beyond the unit.
Keep one at the campsite and let the kids go out hiking. Keep one with your car on a road trip in case it breaks down and one of you has to go off to look for help. Keep one with the group as you travel in undeveloped places and you have one less thing to worry about if you split up. Keep one at the refugee camp, and you have camp communications immediately. I had some friends who did a long distance bike trek in Africa, and this would have been perfect for them to keep in touch with each other when one of them went ahead or behind for whatever reason.