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Reviving Ricochet: Better Than WiFi?

Posted by timothy on from the this-would-sure-be-nice dept.

renard writes "Slate is carrying a column by Brendan Koerner arguing that reviving the Ricochet city-wide wireless network infrastructure would be a better idea than blanketing the nation/world with 802.11-ish WiFi. He reviews all the usual silly reasons why Metricom, the original owners, were unable to make a go of it, and makes a good case that things may go better the second time around."

4 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Some significant research was done in this area by carpe_noctem · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Elan Amir
    Tue May 7 18:07:57 PDT 1996
    Mirrored on the LARIAT Web site with permission

    This report seems a bit outdated, don't you think? A lot of technology has come along since 1996. From what I've heard, the current Ricochet network can go quite a bit faster than 30K/sec.

    --
    "Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
  2. Bandages by neksys · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The advantage to systems like Ricochet is that they are designed expressly for the purpose of wide-area deployment - unlike 802.11 solutions, which seem better suited to system-system connections. Wireless networks using WiFi solutions are kind of like using a ton of bandaids to cover an area - where Ricochet seems more like a large roll of gauze.

  3. The article compares it to 3G ... by ukryule · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The idea of Ricochet is that it can cover a whole city when fully deployed. The article was focusing on it killing 3G before it's born - which is possible.


    However, if you're competing with 2.5/3G then you're competing on ubiquity not bandwidth. There's a lot you can do with low bandwidth which really is 'always on' wherever you are - but it will fail if people can't rely on it. For example, internet radio would be a great mobile app, but as soon as the signal starts pausing and hitting blackspots you'll turn it off.


    It can't compete with WiFi on bandwidth. The question is can it compete with 2.5/3G on coverage?

  4. Why Wi-Fi is Better than Ricochet by cosmosis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because its not owned by anyone! Its not propietary. What we don't need is another carrier. Its time we move beyond centralized distribution. Its time we adopted decentralized wi-fi, becuause it empowers anyone with a connection to become a node in the network. See Mesh Networks to see how this is possible.

    Its time for a communications revolution that has an infrastructure that is built from the bottom-up from individual users. Its time to have a network that is now owned by anyone, but available FREE to everyone.

    Richochet does none of these things.

    Planet P Weblog - Liberty with Technology.

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    www.enthea.org