
You can now install a GSM network using apt-get - ashitlerferad
http://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20160328-osmocom-in-debian/
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erikb
What does it mean to install a GSM network via apt-get? If I run this command
2G mobile antennas will grow out of my laptop?

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kuschkufan
Are you having a bad day? May I suggest you remove this comment for your and
this comment page's benefit.

~~~
bntyhntr
My parents told me, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say
anything at all."

But here I am responding to your comment anyway, sorry mom and dad.

~~~
spacemanmatt
I carved out an exception to that rule, to say something surreal. Have a nice
fish.

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King-Aaron
I've read this three times now, and still can't work out the context. Am I
right in understanding he's talking about GSM mobile/cellular networks?

~~~
cdowns
Yes, the project he talks about is OSMOCom, Open Source Mobile Communications.
[http://osmocom.org/](http://osmocom.org/) will give you a little more
context. I'm assuming this would allow you to route data over these types of
networks given the proper hardware in your own environment.

~~~
King-Aaron
Thank you for that. This is quite interesting, I thought there were quite
strict guidelines about who was allowed to broadcast on 2/3G frequencies? Or
is this bandwidth not as controlled as others?

~~~
cdowns
As "extrapickles" pointed out in another comment thread, the spectrum
requirement for this is an even bigger hurdle than getting all of the
expensive equipment together to pull it off. The tech requires an amount of
frequency separation that spreads outside the bounds of the ISM spectrums, so
you'd need licensing or would need to be running in a third-world country with
no regulations (which is actually a viable use for the tech).

For the unaware, ISM = Industrial, Scientific and Medical. These are the
shared unlicensed frequencies that the general public may use. Wifi falls
inside of this range.

~~~
userbinator
...or in a place where no one who cares can receive your unauthorised
transmissions. If you're not interfering with anyone who has the "right of
way" on those frequencies, then you might as well not exist to them.

~~~
jnagro
the cartels in northern mexico have been known to run their own rouge cell
networks

[http://www.npr.org/2011/12/09/143442365/mexico-busts-drug-
ca...](http://www.npr.org/2011/12/09/143442365/mexico-busts-drug-cartels-
private-phone-networks)

~~~
nekopa
Ah, the ol' Red commie cell nets ;)

(Just in case this wasn't a typo and you're not a native speaker, rouge is red
- in french-, rogue is probably the word you want :)

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apexys
I think this is the same software the NOC is using at chaos events to build
our local GSM infrastructure. Works pretty flawlessly! I kinda want to see it
done using a couple of rad1os or HackRFs though... if that's at all
possible...

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JustSomeNobody
So, this and a bunch of Raspberry Pis and we can start disrupting the cellular
industry?

~~~
tankenmate
You'll need to disrupt the ITU/UN bureaucracy first though; or make do with
over crowded ISM frequencies for which GSM isn't designed.

------
sortof
can this be of good use in developing countries?

~~~
aaron42net
That was an explicit goal of OpenBTS when I was following it years ago. The
GSM vendors want something like $250k per base station, which is unreasonable
for third-world or very-rural applications. OpenBTS thinks they can get the
radio hardware costs down to a tiny fraction of that to serve low volumes,
backed by a Linux box running this software.

Interestingly, their first large-scale field tests were at Burning Man
([http://openbts.sourceforge.net/FieldTest/](http://openbts.sourceforge.net/FieldTest/)),
where there were thousands of active GSM handsets but no cell coverage. They
were able to provide limited SMS support between local participants and in
later tests allowed some outgoing VoIP calls.

~~~
sortof
Great,the only concerns I could think of were legal, around ownership of
frequency ranges abd interference.

~~~
chemeris
The answer is to work with legal spectrum owners (aka cellular carriers),
which is what we ([https://fairwaves.co](https://fairwaves.co)) and other in
the space are doing.

Someone mentioned that building a full networks (or even a full base station)
is much harder than just apt'ing some software and snapping some cheap SDR. So
we spent couple years developing an SDR which is more expensive than your
typical hobbyist one ([http://umtrx.org](http://umtrx.org)) - btw even
hardware of the simple version of our SDR is open-source - and then couple
years building a base station which complies with all regulations and has
open-source in its heart (based on Osmocom obviously). And now we've added a
bit of (unfortunately proprietary) glue and we can run fully fledged cellular
networks for carriers - mostly in developing countries, as was mentioned
before, because demand for simple voice communications is through the roof
there. At the same time you can buy one of our stations for your lab and play
with it as much as you want (get your test license first though).

So yes, you can't stop progress and technology gets cheaper and more
accessible. Which is very exciting.

~~~
sortof
Any idea what the largest opeb source or non commercial gsm network is?

There must be some widely used ones in developing regions.

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frandroid
Do does that mean everyone can put up develop their own Stingray now?

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finnn
No. For that, you'll want [0] (on HN a few days ago). This is mostly for
making it easier to run your own legitimate GSM network, and of course the
software has been available for a long time, it's just now available via the
Debian repositories.

[0]: [https://www.evilsocket.net/2016/03/31/how-to-build-your-
own-...](https://www.evilsocket.net/2016/03/31/how-to-build-your-own-rogue-
gsm-bts-for-fun-and-profit/)

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DiabloD3
Is there any way to use this software to implement a network-connected
femtocell cheaper than the ones AT&T, etc sell?

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antihero
Where's some good reading (general GSM stuff, etc) to do to be able to use
this in a meaningful way?

I'm kind of interested in the idea of setting up a phone network for Nowhere
(and other burner events, where often there's no actual phone signal at all),
but it's a whole area I'm completely unfamiliar with.

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known
Is it
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_on_wheels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_on_wheels)

~~~
spacemanmatt
No, that (COW) is a combined radio station, power supply, and equipment for
connecting to ground based backhaul networks. This release is only software.

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foobarbecue
It's just apt now.

