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Do We Still Need Telcos (and ISPs)?

Posted by Cliff on from the beyond-their-effective-lifetime dept.

eraserewind asks: "Are telecom providers and ISPs going to continue to be necessary in the future? Why are we all paying subscriptions for communicating? What I want is a global extremely-high-speed ad-hoc wireless data & voice network, where the only entry cost is a mobile phone (or newtork card or whatever). Devices communicate peer to peer, or routed via other people's idle devices. Remember there is no subscriptions, so don't expect to piggy-back on someone's paid for DSL bandwidth. What are the technological barriers? What kind of protocols would you need? What hardware advances? How would you solve problems of geographic isolation? Are there theoretical, political or economic reasons it couldn't work?"

2 of 650 comments (clear)

  1. A Mouse Called Keith by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    There once was a mouse called Keith,
    Who circumsized boys with his teeth.
    It wasn't for leisure or sexual pleasure,
    but to get to the cheese underneath!

    And now for some #forum traffic:

    *** GoatseGuy (~Monty@cloaked.houston.rr.com) has joined #forum
    *** Kod has left #forum
    *** King-of-Darkness (kod@cloaked.cyberia.net.lb) has joined #forum
    *** Signoff: gogga (Quit: hejdå)
    *** Signoff: bakani (Quit: -=SysReset 2.53=-)
    *** munk (~munk@modem-1374.elk.dialup.pol.co.uk) has joined #forum
    *** Signoff: RedShirt (Quit: )
    *** LOG|C (~yroc@65.93.0.0) has joined #forum
    *** Signoff: bofh (Ping timeout: 300 seconds)

    So glad I joined early.

  2. Stupidiest "Ask Slashdot" Ever ! by warloch71 · · Score: -1, Troll

    May I suggest to declare this one the stupidiest "ask Slashdot" ever ? Hey dude, were in 2003 ! How come cars aren't free ? uh ? It make no sense I can't get a 2003 Ferrari for free right now .. hu ? dude !