Building a Local Cellular Phone Carrier?

Netsuj asks: "I'm doing some work for a firm which operates in B.F.E. Many miles before even arriving, I loose signal on my GSM phone. What is the feasibility of creating a limited-area wireless telephone network? As it is outside the area of repeater technology (I believe), is there such thing as a simple cellular-to-wireline system? What are the possibilities of this operating on a break-even basis for employees (i.e. charging minimal roaming fees)? Any ideas? Sadly, something like this appears to be the only option; contacting any of the mobile network operators in the larger area resulted in absolutely no interest in expanding their coverage." Unfortunately, along with the technical problems, there is also paperwork. What kind of permits and other red-tape-hurdles would be necessary to satisfy all of the lawyer-types?

Comments

consider

[The Clockwork Troll]

You might think about buying an 802.11b-enabled handheld PC (I think the cheapest run about $600), some voice-over-IP server software, and a bunch of commodity 802.11b equipment that you can sprinkle all around BFE.

Then, get your hands on (or develop if you're so inclined) a voice-over-IP telephone client for said handheld PC and server software.

Seems like this could work as a poor man's makeshift wireless phone service. Of course I have no idea how graceful 802.11b equipment is about handing off from access point to access point, but it seems a lot cheaper (if less entertaining) than Profane Motherfucker's solution.

Re:How many miles?

[ColaMan]

GSM has a hard limit of 35km (22 miles) - after that, you can't compensate enough for the round-trip signal delay from speed of light and data processing.

The delay is quantiled as a 6 bit number in the GSM data stream. 6 bits => 64 steps (0-63); each step advances the timing by one bit duration ie 3.7 microseconds.64 steps allows compensation over a maximum propagation time of 31.5 bit periods ie 113.3 microseconds ( => a maximum distance of ~ 35 km).