Idea: Make your phone a wifi access point
By Stefan Constantinescu on Saturday, January 20th, 2007 at 11:10 AM PST In Ideas and rants
First off let me say this isn’t my idea, I found it here while reading up on the OpenMoko.
The idea is simple enough:
If you are located in a place without internet connection the Neo should be able to act as a WiFi access point and route this through GPRS to the Internet. It will probably make sense to make the access point not open for anyone.
Brilliant! What does this solve:
- Bluetooth is slow
- No need to install the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) PC Suite
- Can enable other WiFi devices to get access
- Multiple devices can attach to wifi versus a bluetooth connection pair
This is just one of those things that makes you go "Why didn’t I think of that?!"
Most terms of service would prevent this type of use, right?
I don’t have the legal knowledge to answer that, then again if you’re paying for data why would your carrier complain if you’re using it … ?
can all phones with wifi do this?
Wifi sucks battery. Also gprs is far slower than bluetooth so any gain in local speed wont translate into faster internet speed. You also dont need pc suite to get a bluetooth connection. Yawn.
gprs is far slower than bluetooth but you’re taking the quote too literally.
bluetooth is too slow for 3G.
as for not needing the pc suite for the connection, i still need the pc suite to install drivers so my computer knows what to do when it connects to my phone.
I ran a 6600 with the generic modem device and windows dial up networking before pc suite support was as advanced as it is now. It was not easy but instructions are out there. as for the speed of 3g id be surprised if its faster than the latest bluetooth offering, but ill take your word for it.
I got to my computer and checked. 384Kbps for 3G, if it existed in the US, and 721 Kbps for bluetooth. I was going to be highly shocked if 3G exceeded the bandwidth available on bluetooth, because GPRS is so absolutely slow. Wikipedia lists maximum speed for one type of GPRS at 80k download.
In theory, 3G wireless networks are capable of throughput up to 384Kbps, which still puts them at the bottom end of 802.11b’s range. In practice, though, 3G isn’t available in the United States at all except in experimental deployments.
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1577551
Q: What is the data throughput speed of a Bluetooth connection?
A: Bluetooth transfers data at a rate of 721 Kbps, which is from three to eight times the average speed of parallel and serial ports, respectively. This bandwidth is capable of transmitting voice, data, video and still images.
http://www.mobileinfo.com/Bluetooth/FAQ.htm#t5
GPRS Speeds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPRS
A) There are multiple versions of Bluetooth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth
B) Most of the higher end Nokia phones ship with Bluetooth 2.0 which supports 2.1 Mbit/s (2.1 megabits = 0.2625 megabytes) in the real world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth#Bluetooth_2.0
C) 3G in the USA is mainly EVDO and EVDO Rev. A based technology which Nokia isn’t going to be using since they don’t do CDMA. EDGE, which isn’t 3G, is rated depending on the number of time slots used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution but in my real world testing I usually never get more than 180 Kbits/s (180 kilobits = 0.0219726562 megabytes)
D) Why are we talking about America? Most of the phones Nokia makes are sold to Europe and Asia. They have genuine 3G access via HSDPA and are getting about 3.6 Mbit/s (3.6 megabits = 0.45 megabytes): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System
E) In the end what is easier for an end user? Connecting to an access point or configuring Dial Up Networking? …. Exactly
So while I do appreciate your arguments Geek, you have to admit, you even said yourself:
“I ran a 6600 with the generic modem device and windows dial up networking before pc suite support was as advanced as it is now. It was not easy but instructions are out there. as for the speed of 3g id be surprised if its faster than the latest bluetooth offering, but ill take your word for it.”
Why not make it as easy as connecting to an access point? The battery drain?
I have a lot more devices that I can hook up to a WiFi access point then devices I need to configure DUN.
a) Agreed.
b) Agreed, BT 2.0 is faster than the number I gave.
c) Agreed, real world data over mobile networks is terribly slow – regardless of the hype about fast “next generation” technology. 180kbps is pretty good. I doubt I get better than 33.6kbps on T-mobile. But then, 5$ flat rate per month for “t-zones” is damn cheap.
d) Is there anything outside of Texas? I forgot. J/k.
e) Well, bluetooth with pc suite is easy, but I was offering an alternate because of your objection to pc suite.
I also have many devices that I can hook to an access point, but only one (my laptop) is mobile.
Here’s a challenge. Make a voip call to a free voip number. Put your phone next to a radio. See how long your battery lasts. My highest requirement for a phone is that one charge *must* get me through at least one day. Running GPRS over BT causes me to sometimes almost fully drain the battery in one day. I couldn’t imagine running wifi and gprs.
My 2c.
I don’t think there is a Nokia HDSPA device in the market yet. Even in Europe N95 will be the first one.