

Soon cell towers will start following you - michaporat
http://gigaom.com/broadband/soon-cell-towers-will-start-following-you/

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Tuna-Fish
This has the advantage that it is quite easy to implement for present
networks.

Personally, I'd still save the title "THE most revolutionary networking
technology I've seen in a long time" for the next-gen phased array smart
antennas and MU-MIMO techniques.

~~~
wcoenen
Indeed. I believe you are referring to this:
[http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/28/steve-perlman-unveils-
dido...](http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/28/steve-perlman-unveils-dido-white-
paper-explaining-impossible-wireless-data-rates/)

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Geee
Sounds like they're just adjusting some existing parameter in realtime which
has previously been adjusted manually. This is not revolutionary, just a small
optimization.

If you have (too much) time, there's a video explaining some of the cognitive
radio technologies researched by Nokia Research Center
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3W43pyEgSk>

~~~
jka
Correct - turns out that the OP is a principal at Genesis Partners, who funded
the startup behind this technology:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=michaporat>

<http://www.crunchbase.com/company/intucell>

May still be valuable tech, but the title seems a bit disingenuous without the
poster's disclosure.

~~~
michaporat
They are actually funded by Bessemer. Crunchbase is wrong.

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bjornsing
"Intucell estimates these techniques can [...] boost overall data capacity
throughout the network anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent."

That's the equivalent of a few months normal growth in mobile data demand...

~~~
kfitchard
Ha! Maybe an exaggeration, but not much of one. Then again there's the problem
of whenever operators create new capacity their customers just fill it.

~~~
bjornsing
A quick google for "compound annual growth rate mobile data" turns up numbers
around 100%, so 30% would take 4 or 5 months and 50% might be 7 or so. You're
right, an exaggeration to call 4-7 "a few", but certainly not much of one.

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jeffpalmer
I have always wondered why cell carriers/manufacturers have not moved to a
phased array type system yet. It has been available for WiFi deployments for
quite some time. This seems like a step in the right direction.

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robertskmiles
I have apparently not gained enough esteem in this community to have a down
arrow, but that title is really bad. It's sensationalist and not descriptive
enough to be useful.

~~~
jessriedel
No one can downvote stories. You can flag it, but I'm not sure if that's the
correct procedure for a bad title. I think the OP can change the title, maybe.

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rachelbythebay
Of course, once this exists, they can start selling QoS levels. Then the
towers will only aggressively adjust for those people who are paying for the
privilege.

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jessriedel
I cannot understand what this technology is supposed to do. What does it mean
for a cell to expand or shrink? Or follow a customer? Why not just have all
cells "expand" to maximum at all times? Power-savings? Interference?

Also, as jka points out,

> the OP is a principal at Genesis Partners, who funded the startup behind
> this technology...May still be valuable tech, but the title seems a bit
> disingenuous without the poster's disclosure.

~~~
learc83
Read the article, it explains the concept fairly well.

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samstave
This is also pretty bad ass:

[http://gigaom.com/broadband/wi-fi-its-the-other-cell-
network...](http://gigaom.com/broadband/wi-fi-its-the-other-cell-network/)

Many wi-fi nodes (via Ruckus Wireless) backhauling over wimax.

~~~
yxhuvud
I work at a direct competitor to that, and lets just say that I'm less than
impressed by their so called seamless sign on.

It requires the user to download a special client - that is a big big
threshold for the average user. Let me contrast this by having the phone
automatically get the information needed as operator settings from the app-
store and then automatically start to offload without bothering the user
further.

Also, why use wimax? It is a tech that is slowly dying (despite the fact that
it gains users - it is expected to peak userwise in a year or two).

~~~
samstave
Thanks for the info. My focus has been in a different area for the last few
years (hospitals) so I was not aware wimax was dying.

I did see the part about the special client, but having not gone through the
process - I am unaware how cumbersome this is, aside from obviously being more
cumbersome than having to do nothing.

What is replacing it. Or, rather, what do you think is interesting and
promising in mobile data?

~~~
yxhuvud
It is cumbersome enough that many end users won't use it.

Wimax is not part of 4G/LTE, so naturally that is what will replace it.

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maeon3
I had an idea, about 90% of the time I need internet on my smartphone, my car
is between me and the cell tower, or if not it is within half a mile of me.

Cell phone companies could put "always on" cell phone repeater in my car,
drinking from a large li-ion battery that is charged by the engine, so when my
smartphone doesn't have enough punch to reach the cell tower, it has enough
power to reach my car's repeater, which has enough power to reach the cell
tower. If I could charge the company 0.001 cents every time someone else's
phone routes through my repeater, the company could save billions on cell
towers. Use the nation's cars as a mobile cell phone network. A Billion dollar
idea right there.

~~~
rhino42
While this sounds like a good idea on the surface, it won't work.

Pretty much all cellular communications nowadays uses CDMA of one flavor or
another. An important property of CDMA is that any signal that I send to the
tower actually causes more noise for the other users in the network. This id
called being interference limited. For this reason, there is a ton of effort
going into power control, so that reach user sends just enough power to reach
the tower but not more. Your cell phone COULD boost it's transmit power to
reach the tower, but it would ruin everyone else's connection.

~~~
eurleif
So what's to stop people from hacking their cell phones to break things for
everyone else?

~~~
bdonlan
Stiff fines. If suddenly the only signal the tower's picking up is yours, it
doesn't take too long to figure out who is responsible.

~~~
eurleif
Prepaid phone, bought with cash, and left in a public place?

~~~
bdonlan
If you keep it up it can be triangulated, I suppose. Other than that, the
tower would have to shift everyone to a different frequency.

