Vanu Replacing Cell Tower Equipment With PCs

Dwight Schwartz writes "As reported in an article on the ScienceDaily site, researchers from Vanu, Inc. of Cambridge, MA, have successfully tested a system, the Vanu Software Radio(tm), that can replace a cellular tower's room full of communications hardware with a Pentium-based computer running Linux. The system offers the hope of making cellular technology more affordable for small, rural communities." The systems have been tested for the last several months in parts of Texas, with wider adoption planned for the near future.

Comments

Affordability for rural people!

[commie_pig]

This is excellent. I live in South Africa, and there is a massive gulf between the poor and the few rich - this will help to connect all the poor people, and especially the ones in rural areas.

What makes me the happiest of all, is that the system runs Linux, and this is great in the light of the fact that the South African government has articulated its commitment to open source software (they have indicated that they may replace several government systems with Linux boxes! so I hope that it happenes)

It just shows what a bit of ingenuity can do.