Phones evolved into pocket PCs but they were and still are primarily radios. Radios that YOU personally aren’t licensed to operate, the phone manufacturer/carrier is. Open source OSs would allow users to operate those radios, which means they could develop communications using cell carrier bands without a license. Imagine meshtastic at 50x the bitrate and everybody and their grandma already has the hardware. Why would people keep paying $60/mo to have every communication recorded and given to the government?
The current telecommunications system is the most powerful mass surveillance tool to ever exist. That’s not something that will be dismantled easily.
People can load custom operating systems on their computer all they want without turning their wifi and Bluetooth adapter into a two way software defined radio.
Cellular carriers don’t have more bandwidth, usually they have a lot less, they just use it more efficiently and reuse that same bandwdith across many cells. Something like meshtastic is great but without centralised tracking of user equipment you cant handover between cells without dropping traffic. Meshtastic uses much larger bands less efficiently.
“Less efficient” is quite a misnomer here, since the meshtastic network mainly has to work around the regulations, which leaves it only small timeframes for transmitting. When such a project can only transmit for a few minutes per hour, then naturally it has way less bandwidth overall
Phones evolved into pocket PCs but they were and still are primarily radios. Radios that YOU personally aren’t licensed to operate, the phone manufacturer/carrier is. Open source OSs would allow users to operate those radios, which means they could develop communications using cell carrier bands without a license. Imagine meshtastic at 50x the bitrate and everybody and their grandma already has the hardware. Why would people keep paying $60/mo to have every communication recorded and given to the government?
The current telecommunications system is the most powerful mass surveillance tool to ever exist. That’s not something that will be dismantled easily.
That’s a bit of a huge stretch.
People can load custom operating systems on their computer all they want without turning their wifi and Bluetooth adapter into a two way software defined radio.
I can spend $20 right now and buy a ham radio that I have full control over and no license to operate. This ain’t it.
Ham radio requires a license. You may be thinking of other services like gmrs . We get the point though.
Don’t need a license to have the radio or even to use it to listen. Only need a license to transmit.
That’s not using it for communications then.
That also depends on where you are located. Some countries are twitchier about citizens having radio equipment than others.
Cellular carriers don’t have more bandwidth, usually they have a lot less, they just use it more efficiently and reuse that same bandwdith across many cells. Something like meshtastic is great but without centralised tracking of user equipment you cant handover between cells without dropping traffic. Meshtastic uses much larger bands less efficiently.
“Less efficient” is quite a misnomer here, since the meshtastic network mainly has to work around the regulations, which leaves it only small timeframes for transmitting. When such a project can only transmit for a few minutes per hour, then naturally it has way less bandwidth overall