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Do you think mobile phones will ever get proper peer to peer communication?

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tom66:
Or just buy an international eSim before you go, sometimes you can even buy this at the airport (though expect to pay a premium).  It is a QR code you scan which gives you x days of service, usually data only, but if you want you can add a phone number and get texts/calls too. 

coppice:
Phones are designed on the basis of one small lousy antenna interacting with a large high performance one. If you are interested in peer to peer phone communication you need one of the trunk radio protocols, which still use a base station for negotiation, but send the signal peer to peer once communication is established. Something like TETRA. Those are not the most compact things you will ever use.

Kosmic:

--- Quote from: coppice on March 25, 2024, 02:00:16 pm ---Phones are designed on the basis of one small lousy antenna interacting with a large high performance one. If you are interested in peer to peer phone communication you need one of the trunk radio protocols, which still use a base station for negotiation, but send the signal peer to peer once communication is established. Something like TETRA. Those are not the most compact things you will ever use.

--- End quote ---

I echo coppice's comment. The cell phone is a bad transmitter and receiver (because of size and power consumption) and the cellphone tower is a really good transmitter and receiver. So the tower compensate for the cell phone and is an important part in the design of the whole system.

If you want short distance communication between devices, better to use Bluetooth.

I use to work for a company that was making self-forming and self-healing mesh network and the limitation on latency and bandwidth was significative. They ended up finding a good fit in underground mines where traditional structured wireless technologies (cellular, wifi) are not really viable.

In general, peer to peer technologies are really inefficient.

Kosmic:

--- Quote from: pdenisowski on March 25, 2024, 09:10:43 am ---
--- Quote from: e100 on March 25, 2024, 04:35:36 am ---The telco SIM system is way worse because it is is region locked. If you step off a plane in another first world country without planning weeks ahead and purchasing a regional SIM or roaming plan, you will literally have no service, not even text. On my last trip I had to carry two physical phones and switch from one to the other when the plane landed. That is completely insane.

--- End quote ---

I have an iPhone and "normal" service with one of the major United States network operators: I can travel to any major country in Europe and Asia and my phone works without having to change SIMs, notify the carrier in advance, etc.  Yes, I have to pay a (frankly, pretty reasonable) per-day charge, but I've never not had service in a "first world" country.

Maybe a business issue rather than a technical issue?

--- End quote ---

The standards has been merged since 4G I believe. So, if your phone is not vendor locked, it should work everywhere. Doesn't mean it's going to be cheap though since your provider will charge you for using your device outside your normal zone.

The only technical issue left is frequencies used, since those are regulated per region. Your device might not support them all.

David Hess:

--- Quote from: tom66 on March 25, 2024, 01:00:54 pm ---I don't think it's practical for the way phones are used these days, because you need long distance calling and routing a call through possibly hundreds of other phones will always be less reliable and have greater latency than going through cell towers.
--- End quote ---

The question was about peer-to-peer communications.  Meshtastic would allow a slightly wider context, but does not scale up.

As in bypassing the telcos for short distance communication, for example for text and voice communication within an office complex.

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