Hippie Hacker: Home Brew solar powered cell phone towers now a reality

Monday, August 30, 2010

Home Brew solar powered cell phone towers now a reality

I knew it would be a big thing back when I saw software radios being introduced back in the late 90's that could run open software, but not setting up inexpensive cell phone networks has become a reality and I know I want to be involved. For around $4500 you can setup a cell phone tower that is solar powered, self contained and can be used to bring voice calling and texting to an area that has absolutely no service. Connect that to the internet, and you have international calling at extremely reasonable rates. Ability to set this up in a relief zone where there is no infrastructure? Priceless.

No comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

You call youself a Hacker! Isn't that bad?

I'm am somewhat a mix of the Hacker Manefesto and aWhite Hat hacker.

That would be the movie equivalent of John Wayne hanging with the Easy Rider crew. Good? Yes. Knows how the 'other side' thinks? Yes.

I've written security application frameworks for several companies over the years. I also attained a CCIE in Security and know networking pretty well. I've got some killer ideas for some new applications, but I have to find the right folks to work with. Using this branding is a way to limit my market down to those folks I'd like to work with.

How do you make money?

You think I'm in this for the Money?

While I like having enough bread to keep gas in the van, keep the dog fed, and pay rent, but I don't like to ask the non-profit's I work for for money. Eventually I'd like do be able to fund myself with grants and contributions from people who have seen the impact of my work and want to spread the love.

For now, the interim approach is to use my skills as a 'Paid Professional Paranoid' and 'Internet Plumber' to get contract work. The gimmick here is that for each hour I contract out to a normal organization, I pledge to work an hour for a nonprofit to help them with security and efficiency. Hence getting the street cred with the other people out there doing good to find the bread I need to keep the van running.