
GoTenna – Send and receive messages even when you don’t have service - chrisBob
http://static.gotenna.com
======
tlrobinson
A consumer-friendly, open version of amateur radio's APRS network would be
really cool. This seems like the first step, though I don't know if they
intend to open the protocol.

Also, 50 mile range sounds great, but that's under "ideal" conditions, which
happens roughly never. I'm curious what the range would be in the real world.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
> _50 mile range sounds great, but that 's under "ideal" conditions, which
> happens roughly never. I'm curious what the range would be in the real
> world._

In that graphic, change the elevation to 6ft and you get much more realistic
ranges. The default elevation is 500ft (top of a small hill).

I'm a HAM operator, that device's frequency is just a bit above our very
popular 2m band. The ranges they indicate at more realistic elevations sound
about right for me, for a data connection at 2W.

~~~
peatmoss
Weren't police bands (previously) right about there? My license lapsed a few
years back, but if memory serves, some people would do some minor surgery on
their 2m radios so they could tune in to police bands just above 2m. I assume
police all use some fancy digital microwave comms now.

~~~
tlrobinson
_" some people would do some minor surgery on their 2m radios so they could
tune in to police bands just above 2m"_

Probably, but you could also just buy a police scanner from Radio Shack, or
even a $10 TV tuner that can be used as an SDR:
[http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-
sdr](http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr)

In fact I think those cheap Boafeng radios will even transmit on those
frequencies. Of course that would be highly illegal.

 _" fancy digital microwave comms now"_

Microwave radios are only really used for point-to-point links, as the shorter
wavelengths require line-of-sight.

They _are_ using digital trunking systems
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunked_radio_system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunked_radio_system)),
and encryption in some cases.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
My Yaesu FT-817 transceiver has continuous, gapless tuning from the bottom of
long-wave radio to the top of UHF - at least on the receiving side.

I'm pretty sure there's a simple hack to also make it _transmit_ on any
arbitrary frequency - but that's illegal, of course.

[http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCat...](http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=102&encProdID=06014CD0AFA0702B25B12AB4DC9C0D27&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0)

------
kfullert
Interesting ... does this do any kind of store and forward or relaying? Say I
send a message to a friend who happens to be out of range, but there was
another GoTenna user who neither of us know, but who is in range of us both,
will it relay the message via this 3rd party (encrypted) or is it purely a
direct connection between sender --> receiver?

~~~
daniper
We _want_ to do that, but FCC regulations don't enable meshing (currently) on
the bands we're using (151-154 MHz, aka the MURS band). We considered
releasing a 900 MHz device that the FCC allows to mesh but then you only get,
if you're lucky, up to 0.5 km range and it has to be line-of-sight. So we went
with MURS because you can get greater range and don't have to be line-of-
sight; the propagation characteristics are better down at MURS. Also, when we
asked 1000 people (including testers) what they preferred -- a long-range MURS
device or a short-range meshing device -- about 8 of 10 picked the former. So
that's why the goTenna device you see today is our first release!

~~~
glomek
Do you intend to release the specifications for the protocol you are using?
For example, would I be able to hook a computer with gnuradio up to a MURS
radio and write software that could communicate with a goTenna?

~~~
daniper
We have an open SDK coming out soon -- you can sign up for developer updates
at our website

~~~
glomek
That sounds like a way to write programs that use a bluetooth attached
gotenna. Is that correct?

What I am asking is, could I talk to a gotenna using another radio setup of my
own creation. Are you publishing enough information about gotenna for me to do
that?

------
GrinningFool
Offtopic:

Yet another site that uses a ton of scrolling, space, and images to provide
information that would fit in a couple of paragraphs. It's true that a picture
can speak a thousand words. On the other hand a few dozen words can make up
for six giant pictures that convey little information.

Note to mention the giant video that greets me. Has this actually proven
effective, as it becomes more and more common? I don't know about most, but I
will seldom watch a product video during my day - I don't have time or
patience to wait for speed-of-speech delivery of information.

</rant>

~~~
Angostura
Agreed. I simply couldn't be bothered - particularly as I was already trying
to scroll down past the huge video to find content before the page had
finished loading, leaning to page-jumping hilarity. I gave up almost
immediately and came to visit the comments to find out what it was.

------
ryanmarsh
Say you are just 1 mile from a friend, at 151Mhz the fresnel zone is 72ft
tall. If you are both at equal elevation on flat land then 50% of the signal
is going to be absorbed by the ground. How exactly does this scenario work?

Source: I used to build outdoor medium distance (~1mi) wireless data networks
with 900Mhz and at 1 mi the fresnel zone is roughly 30ft tall so we would put
our antenna 20ft in the air. The awesome thing is we could shoot through a
mile of forest but only if 60+% of the fresnel zone was not occluded by the
ground.

Edit: I should also add that I would have loved something like this in Iraq.
Next to keeping soldiers fed, coordinating with adjacent units (read: not
shooting at each other) on foot during a mission is about the biggest
challenge there is.

~~~
TD-Linux
The propagation characteristics of VHF are substantially better than 900MHz.
I've used voice radios in the VHF band in urban Minneapolis, and have been
able to easily surpass a mile of range. I'm surprised they didn't choose a
lower frequency still.

In addition, using something like DSSS, a low data rate, and retransmission
ability will probably help a lot for this application.

~~~
daniper
Agreed. Substantially better. Our first goTenna prototypes worked at 900 MHz
band and we could barely get 0.5 km (NOT MILES) line of sight. With the
goTennas that are now out for pre-order, we've gotten anywhere from 0.5 miles
to 3.5 miles in NYC (where we're based), to give you an idea -- and there's
little that is as non-ideal for RF propagation than a metropolitan city.

------
ikonst
This can be significantly better than walkie-talkies. In poor reception,
sometimes you can't manage to deliver even a simple message coherently
(especially since, to be understood by a fellow human, you need reliable
communication in real time for the duration of your entire message).

But usually, you just want to get a message across. You want something like
morse code, not voice. Delivering a short textual message, not in real-time
but "instantly", with redundancy, error correction and retries, serves me
better than walkie talkies.

(Heck, you can deliver a short audio fragment, but I don't see too many people
using the "send voice" feature in Whatsapp, don't know about you.)

~~~
daniper
Preach on! :) Yes, we think we're better/more convenient than walkie-talkies
for a few reasons. 1) We integrate with the smartphone you already have on
you. 2) The asynchronous communication, as you said, allows for less
miscommunication. Plus, with delivery confirmation receipts you KNOW it didn't
just disappear into the void somewhere, and was actually received by your
intended recipient(s). 3) You can direct the message specifically to discrete
individuals or groups. You don't need to worry about being on the same channel
or hear other people you don't know yakking. 4) You can share your location on
detailed offline maps.

~~~
mightymu
What 'offline maps' are available? Something built into the gotenna app, the
device's native mapping app, or something else?

~~~
daniper
The app comes with a vector map of the entire world. You can then download
specific areas to get complete detail (i.e. down to hiking trails and city
blocks) before you head out -- depending which maps you want you'll download
via small country (e.g. France) or state (e.g. California). All goTenna maps
are free!

------
chrisBob
The part I think is missing is a connection back to the cell network so that
you can give people in more remote locations the ability to text the rest of
the world using this as a link. I don't see the 2-user walky-talky being that
useful, but I would happily leave this and an extra phone in my car if it
meant getting text functionality as I hike out 20 miles.

~~~
p4bl0
> The part I think is missing is a connection back to the cell network so that
> you can give people in more remote locations the ability to text the rest of
> the world using this as a link.

While reading their FAQ I thought of that, and if the API is open sourced or
reverse-engineered, it shouldn't be too difficult to write a smartphone
application which would act as a relay between to goTenna and the phone
network (for instance if the relay-phone receives on the goTenna a message
from A saying "SMS <num> foo bar" it could relay the "A says: foo bar" via SMS
to <num>.

~~~
daniper
Daniela, goTenna co-founder here -- back-haul is the 'easy part.' We just
wanted to start with the hard part, i.e. a communication system that never
requires central connectivity; a smart network with no actual central brain.

~~~
p0ckets
It sounds like you don't even need the hard part for a viable product: range
extender for cell phones targeted at people engaged in outdoor activities but
parked somewhere with cell phone reception.

~~~
konstruktor
Technically, this has been possible for a long time, but it is not allowed for
regulatory reasons, and those regulations are not just there because somebody
enjoys being a killjoy. Radio transmission and networks are a complex subject
matter. Most of all, they're a scarce, common resource and it's easy to mess
things up for others.

If you want real off the grid connectivity, buy or rent a sat phone or a
satellite emergency notification device (there are pretty affordable choices
for both).

~~~
malandrew
If there were a band of legitimately useful long range spectrum that was a
free for all, wouldn't there be a strong economic incentive for people to
invent modulation techniques capable of functioning effectively in such a
noisy environment?

Alternatively, wouldn't it be conceivable for transmitting nodes to cooperate
with one another to send transmissions. For example, if N nodes all transmit
encrypted content on the same band to M receivers, then the signals of all but
one of those N transmitters look like noise to each of the M receivers, thus
limiting the transmission rate achievable over any given channel. If instead
of that approach, what if a transmitter instead used a second frequency solely
for the purpose of coordinating transmissions with the other nodes so as to
minimize interference which each other. In addition to coordinating when they
are or are not transmitting, couldn't they selective choose different
modulation techniques that are easily distinguishable from one another, and
thus transmittable simultaneously.

Feel free to educate or correct me here. I know very little about this domain.

------
alexchamberlain
I love it... I wonder if there will be some kind of base station available?
I'm thinking about Scout camps, where we turn up on a campsite with a few
hundred kids, and often use radios to talk between important adults. The range
would need to be a few miles, so WiFi is out of the question. Too expensive
mind, but very very cool!

------
giarc
These would be great for vacation travel. I sometimes travel with another
couple and we often split up during the day. I prefer not to pay for cell
service in these countries (high cost, I'm on vacation, can check email later,
don't want to be tempted to spend time on my phone etc) but this would be nice
since it restricts it to messages to the other couple only and location info.
Very tempted to buy a pair.

------
jrockway
Does anyone have details on the RF layer? What band does it use? What emission
type does it use? What bit rate does it send at? What happens when 1000 of
these are in the same place at once?

~~~
nitinics
From what I am reading, it runs on Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS). i.e.
151-154 Mhz spectrum.

Excerpt From
[https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-02-139A1.p...](https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-02-139A1.pdf)

Under the revised rules, MURS units are: • Permitted to have detachable
antennas; • Permitted to have external antennas up to 6.1 meters (20 feet)
above a structure or 18.3 meters (60 feet) above the ground, whichever is
higher; • Permitted to have a total power output (TPO) of up to two (2) watts
(instead of two (2) watts effective radiated power); • Not permitted to be
used as cordless telephones, radiofacsimile (imaging), or for continuous
carrier mode operations; and • Not permitted to be used for repeater
operations

Without a repeater, I would assume it is very difficult to imagine a hop-by-
hop network?

~~~
mng2
They also explicitly forbid store-and-forward operations.

~~~
lepht
Can anyone provide some insight into why this would be? What's the intention
of these restrictions?

~~~
meatmanek
In the PDF that nitinics linked,
[https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-02-139A1.p...](https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-02-139A1.pdf),
check out the bottom of page 13.

    
    
      Because repeaters utilize two channels at once (input and
      output) and extend the operating range of a single user,
      their use would limit the number of users able to share
      these frequencies at the same time.
      ...
      some commenters are concerned that MURS frequencies will be
      congested and that repeater use will only aggravate this
      problem. We agree.
    

Basically, they want to maximize the number of users that are able to
reasonably use this band. At the time (1998-2002), two-way radios were much
more popular than they are today (cell phones have largely made them
obsolete), so I can understand the concern.

For whatever reason, MURS never did became as popular as GMRS or FRS did.

------
rtrsqrrl
Reminds me of the Cybiko:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybiko](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybiko)

------
smackfu
"Early supporters get 50% off for a limited time."

I always wonder about this kind of pricing structure. It seems like selling
your product for half of what you plan to eventually charge for it gives you
pretty useless data on what the proper price should be. You may sell a ton at
$100, but people perceive that as expensive, and then you might sell zero at
$200.

~~~
giarc
I imagine they are profitable at 50% and therefore if they don't sell any at
full price, they could come back down to 50% off (or somewhere similar).

------
zw123456
It's a walkie talkie that uses a BT audio connection to your phone to use the
mic and speaker of your phone as the mic and speaker for the walkie talkie,
brilliant as many people will think it is magic cellular. Save yourself a lot
of money and just buy a walkie talkie with it's own regular mic and speaker.

------
spiritplumber
So my guess is, it's a bluetooth radio and a XBee. Nice? I think? What
surprises me is the size of it; I've deployed exactly this (minus the spiffy
packaging, admittedly) for barge tracking applications since 2008, and the
whole thing ended up being roughly the size of an early 2000s palmtop
computer, so good job on that!

The schematic is trivial: a xbee XSC (we used XStreams at the time) with a
decent antenna coupled with any serial bluetooth module. The whole thing runs
on 3.3V with high tolerances, so a single lithium cell is enough to power it
without regulation.

If you can't do meshing for legal reasions, do a transparent blind forward --
for short messages that you don't mind a delay for, it works out well, and the
FCC (and the coast guard) have been OK with it. If you want my design contact
me at www.f3.to

~~~
TD-Linux
No. It is in the 150MHz (VHF) range, which is probably one reason why it is as
long as it is. I assume they rolled at least a semi-custom radio solution.

~~~
daniper
Yes, we've built everything from scratch! It's been fun/impossible. :)

~~~
spiritplumber
Very cool! I'm messing with low bandwidth satellite communication, and well,
looks like you're way ahead of me :D

------
0xdeadbeefbabe
@Daniela I hope you aren't exhausted by all these, but X would be cool
comments. If not: A walkie-textie would be cool, something less expensive and
fragile (as emilv said) than a smartphone with a keyboard instead of a touch
screen. Is there a serial interface to gotenna?

~~~
daniper
I believe you're asking if there's a user interface to goTenna? If so, not in
the current device. The UI is your smartphone -- the point is to conform to
consumer behavior (i.e. the way you already text on your phone).

~~~
0xdeadbeefbabe
Is there an alternative to bluetooth-LE for talking to the gotenna?

~~~
daniper
Our first prototypes worked over the audio jack (à la Square) but from both
performance and form factor perspectives, having it work wirelessly over BLE
worked better. That being said we can work audio and other data interfaces
into later products for sure, we're just going MVP route ;)

------
niels_bom
I slid the range slider all the way down as I'm in the, notoriously flat,
Netherlands. Most of the time I'm in a city, Amsterdam, and then I'd have a
range of 0 miles. Is that correct? That does not sound very useful to me then.

Can someone confirm that this is correct?

~~~
adaml_623
I think their slider is a bit misleading as if you have the slider at 0ft then
the range is 0 but if you have it at 5ft then the range is up in the miles.

I think their point is that if you need to use this then you may need to seek
slightly higher ground... or some stairs...

~~~
frabcus
Most people are 5ft tall!

~~~
chrisBob
But most pockets are only about 32" off the ground. Maybe they should sell
hats that it attaches to.

~~~
daniper
We industrially designed a nylon attachment strap to each goTenna so you can
attach it wherever you'd like. Including, I suppose, your head.

------
thenipper
This is pretty interesting. I work for an NGO and something like this looks
really useful for people working in the field to allow some sort of simple
communication/location when you don't have service, or it is super expensive.

~~~
daniper
Hey, we're working with all kinds of disaster relief nonprofits and the like.
Would be great to hear from you: partnerup@gotenna.com

------
zeeed
What happens to a message if it's not received? Will it be retransmitted or is
it lost? Do I know if my message has been received by my contact (1:1) or
anyone (1:all)?

~~~
daniper
goTenna will retry sending your message a few times, and then if it still
doesn't go through, will alert you that it hasn't been delivered. At that
point you can try again manually.

There are delivery confirmation receipts for 1:1 messaging but not for groups
as that's a networking nightmare (e.g. not even Whatsapp or iMessage does
that).

------
somberi
Asking to learn. I travel often all over India and most parts of Africa. I
have consistently received cell phone signals in 90% of the places. Local sim
cards are easily available and the prices are ~20cents per message. In this
context, I wonder the need of such a device. In fact having yet another device
to charge is a bigger concern. I can see situations where this is helpful, but
I think it is in the minority.

~~~
napoleond
I have not been to Africa or India, but considering that it's easy to find
areas of North America without cell phone coverage I find it very difficult to
believe your assertion about 90% coverage. Even in cities, it seems from the
comments here that there is some appeal to communicating "off the grid" as it
were.

~~~
ismail
His assertion is true, i have traveled to 4+ countries in africa, and live in
one.

I have yet to be without signal in all my travels. You would need to go really
remote to find a place without signal.

Even sparsely populated areas, backwaters are covered. The reason is
communication infrastructure was pretty bad here, hence we leap frogged and
mobile is primary means of communication.

You also have the other challenge of copper being stolen, hence in some areas
the only way for you to get comms (internet/phone) is via mobile.

~~~
com2kid
> I have yet to be without signal in all my travels. You would need to go
> really remote to find a place without signal.

In contrast, I can travel ~20 minutes outside a major metropolitian area in
the US (Seattle) and be without cell service.

Heck I often am without cell service when I'm hiking. Then again I'm using a
provider (T-Mobile) which is known to only work in metro areas!

~~~
somberi
I was going to write this part in my original email but wanted to stick to the
main concern about use cases. I do live 3-4 months a year in NYC and in my
pre-war building, T-mobile has spotty coverage. If I travel to Connecticut, 90
minutes away, there are many spots en-route where I do not get a signal.

------
colinbartlett
From the FAQs: "Use our free app to type out a text message or share a
location."

Ugh, it's a lot less magical than they make it seem in the video.

~~~
devcpp
All it takes is replacing the actual phone dialer app (which AFAIK can only be
done in AOSP-based distributions) to make it work transparently.

You'd also have to add a phone number broadcasting service to make it work
with phone numbers though, but I can see the potential. I'm much more
skeptical about range, battery or security concerns.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> You'd also have to add a phone number broadcasting service to make it work
> with phone numbers though, but I can see the potential. I'm much more
> skeptical about range, battery or security concerns

Have the app sync to a registry online when connectivity is available, and
keep the key-value table locally (phone->deviceID).

------
AndrewKemendo
Can these things share accurate telemetry data so you can add a geospatial
data layer? That would be great because if they are communicating anyway
getting relative location should be reasonable and make keeping track of folks
much easier while not having to rely on LOS.

edit: I see the maps feature but I also see the text of the messages asking
where someone is, so that is what spurred the question.

------
scottshapiro
I'm most excited for the mountaineering / backcountry application in the short
term but as critical mass develops in urban areas, there could be an
interesting ecosystem that develops around this even without repeater
functionality. Anything from people discovery like Tinder to b2c interaction
like OrderAhead could build on top of a comm stack like this.

------
liotier
Ham packet for non-geeks !

------
mwjackson
Is goTenna crowdfunding on Indiegogo or is this a scam? If it is, how can we
get it taken down?
[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gotenna/x/8214478](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gotenna/x/8214478)

~~~
daniper
Wow, this is definitely a scam.

------
Sami_Lehtinen
They say that you can take it anywhere. But is it legal to use anywhere? It's
not using any worldwide ISM band, so I assume they're bit lost with this topic
too. So you can take it anywhere, but you can't use it legally everywhere.

------
merpherpderp
Looks like a show stopper in Canada; [http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-
gst.nsf/eng/sf10822.html](http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-
gst.nsf/eng/sf10822.html)

------
ramigb
That seems wonderful, maybe in the future this could have an SDK where
developers could use the device for something other than messaging, for
example long range car remote! or any type of long range RC.

~~~
daniper
100%!!! Our dev kits will be available soon:
[http://bit.ly/1oRwBkI](http://bit.ly/1oRwBkI)

------
nathanb
Lengthier but more accurate title: Send and receive messages to other GoTenna
devices within range via alternate RF-band communications even when you don't
have service.

A text-mode walkie-talkie.

------
scolson
I wonder how hackable these will be, or what kind of bandwidth you might be
able to push. I could see putting one at my home and one at my office to
create a poormans wireless bridge.

~~~
decktech
It's 2 meter VHF, very low bandwidth. Useful for GPS and text messages only.
An Email bridge might be pretty cool, but I'm not sure of the exact speed.

~~~
daniper
Yes, we're focused, with this first product, on asynchronous, low-bandwidth
data comms. Through our R&D for the past 21 months, that's what most testers
and people wanted most, especially when they don't have service otherwise.

------
antr
I can see myself using this during my mountain/road biking trips with friends,
although the form format doesn't look very practical on the back pockets of
cycling jerseys.

------
neals
Let's build our own cellphonenetwork, where we all have something like this
and it's like a giant p2p network!

------
calebm
Potential cool application of GoTenna: communication with a robot without
having to pay for a data plan.

~~~
jrockway
Uh, just use Zigbee or something similar?

~~~
umsm
Zigbee: "Outdoors with line-of-sight, range may be up to 1500 m depending on
power output and environmental characteristics"

~~~
jrockway
I'd buy one of these GoTennas before you get too excited about the range.

"Oh, but it's VHF so you can get Es propagation and talk to Europe from the
US!"

Good luck with that.

------
rwbt
Very cool. I hope this becomes at least a niche success and the price comes
down in future versions.

~~~
umsm
At $150 for two devices, it seems like a good deal for something that you
would use once or twice a year. If the price goes up (as the website suggests
that it is currently being offered at a 50% off promo), then I doubt it will
become a mainstream device.

------
dexcs
Great device, great idea! Please allow orders from within the EU... That would
be awesome!

------
arnorb
They should maybe pause the video in the masthead when the overlay video is
playing.

~~~
daniper
It does! Which OS/browser are you using?

~~~
bencoder
Same thing on Firefox 30 on Win 7.

It didn't bother me much though, it's faded to almost-white and I only noticed
because I read this comment before.

------
jasiek
What band does this operate in? Do I need a license to operate one in the EU?

~~~
th0br0
Seems to be shipping to US & Canada only for now.

------
jbverschoor
Oh that's pretty cool.. It's like a walky-talky but for data

------
wglb
Looks interesting.

What radio service and frequencies does it use?

~~~
wglb
Ah.

 _We are now at a device that is Bluetooth LE-enabled that works on the
151-154 MHz range_ from [http://www.cnet.com/news/gotenna-creates-cell-
network-out-of...](http://www.cnet.com/news/gotenna-creates-cell-network-out-
of-thin-air-anywhere-on-earth/)

So this is essentially a mesh network or at least all independent nodes?

~~~
spacefight
Sounds more like a point to point communication but not a mesh to me.

~~~
wglb
Yes, and she answered the question in a different thread.

------
carsonreinke
`Pending FCC approval.`

------
ErikRogneby
how hackable will this be? Will the end user be able to turn up the signal
strength and gain? (similar to what I can do on my wifi access point?)

~~~
daniper
Our open SDK is coming soon. You can't really mess with signal strength and
gain (especially bc of FCC regulations)

------
ender89
GoTenna + Mesh networking = go f### yourself ATT

------
faraday
Wow. I just need to figure out how to relay messages from my Ooma phone to one
of these devices for forwarding on and good riddance to cell provider
services.

------
foolinaround
if this is available on some kind of rental plan, there is a huge
opportunity....

------
wehadfun
off topic but a simpiler website would have been nice. All the video and huge
pictures of half dressed people is too much to browse for work.

------
wnevets
what is old is new again. Whats next, pens and paper as a new way to send
messages without a phone?

------
gcb4
i will be taking round A for a direct marketing company for affluent consumers
via the gotenna network.

:)

------
GeorgeMac
Is it me or is their a guy in the video getting baked? Not only that it is
around the security part where he is getting in contact with his mate "Jason
Greengrocer" about getting more. That part makes me happy!

~~~
daniper
Daniela, goTenna co-founder here, "Jason Greengrocer" is actually a real
person in my phone I contact about once a month ;)

~~~
danesparza
Are you suggesting Jason lives in your phone?

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beejiu
So it's just a walkie talkie that has bluetooth? You can buy decent walkie
talkies for £20, I'm not what paying £100 is getting me.

~~~
zizzer
From the few details [1] I've been able to find it seems like it's unusable in
the UK anyway as it uses 151-154 MHz, which is a licensed band. If they moved
it up into the 433ishMHz unlicensed band their range claims would all have to
be revised.

[1] [http://gigaom.com/2014/07/17/no-signal-gotenna-has-a-
messagi...](http://gigaom.com/2014/07/17/no-signal-gotenna-has-a-messaging-
gadget-that-will-work-in-the-middle-of-nowhere/)

~~~
daniper
We'll expand internationally later!

~~~
threeio
To me it seemed like part of your sales pitch was infering that you could use
it internationally where you don't have service or don't want to pay the high
overages ;)

~~~
daniper
We're currently shipping to only US & Canada for regulatory reasons ;)

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emilv
No voice? That lost all of my interest. So now I need to tap out a message on
my expensive, somewhat fragile smartphone with dirty fingers while losing all
sight of the road for a minute. Instead of a sturdy walkie-talkie where I can
hear the voices of my friends, talk efficiently in real sentences and I can
look where I'm going all the time.

~~~
daniper
I get it's not for everyone, but what we learned as we developed this is that
more people wanted asynchronous data comms as opposed to real-time voice. And
when I say "more," I mean like, 75% of testers preferred the former.

From a networking perspective, as well, it makes our ad hoc reconfigurable
network more scalable if we're focused on short-burst transmissions that are,
technically speaking, delay-tolerant. This means that even if you're at a huge
event with tons of people using goTenna, even if a gajillion of them press
"send" at the exact same femtosecond, all the messages can get through in a
matter of seconds if not milliseconds.

~~~
emilv
That is a good point. But then I'm even less sure where I would use this.
Definitely not when out hiking in the woods.

I still believe I'm with the 25% that didn't prefer asynchronous messaging.

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rglover
"When you're off-grid you can remain connected."

Lol, humans.

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efkv
Can we get rid of this trend of having such media-heavy product pages? The
HTML5 header video is nifty, but the page is ~20MB to load. Is that really
necessary to describe a product?

~~~
badman_ting
It's not like I disagree but discussing this aspect of every new thing that
comes along is rather tiresome.

