Alcatel-Lucent Shrinks Mobile Cell Tower To Small Cube

pbahra writes "French mobile telephone infrastructure manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent today unveiled technology that shrinks a mobile cell tower to a box the size of a Rubik's cube, potentially changing the structure of the cellular network, reducing greenhouse emissions and bringing mobile broadband into new areas. According to Wim Sweldens, president of wireless activities for Alcatel-Lucent, by reducing the technology from something the size of a filing cabinet, networks would reduce the total cost of ownership by half, as well as halving the global CO2 emissions from the mobile industry — currently equivalent of 15 million cars a year."

Comments

Your cell tower has been crushed into a cube

[HTH NE1]

You have 30 minutes to move your cube.

Cubes are in style!

[danbert8]

Is that what they were wearing on their heads during the halftime show?

Re:Just another microcell

[MarkRose]

What I'm curious about, is can you combine eight of them together to form a Tactical Fusion Cube?

No substitute for human ingenuity

[handy_vandal]

Perhaps the guy holding the cube is the replacement for the tower.

Say the reception is not so good on a rainy day. With a tower, there's nothing you can do, the tower is bolted to the ground.

But the guy holding the cube, you can tell him "Turn a little bit more to the right ... sorry, I meant my right, not your right ... okay, that's better."

Re:No substitute for human ingenuity

[necro81]

Does mean we can get the annoying Verizon wireless guy to hold this way up high in the middle of a thunderstorm?

We are one step closer

[jollyreaper]

Jen: [Moss has a small plastic box with a flashing light] What is it?
Moss: This, Jen, is the Internet.
Jen: What?
Moss: That's right.
Jen: This is the Internet? The whole Internet?
Moss: Yep. I asked for a loan of it so that you could use it in your speech.
Jen: It's so small.
Moss: That's one of the surprising things about it.
Jen: Hang on, it doesn't have any wires or anything.
Moss: It's wireless.
Jen: Oh, yes, everything's wireless nowadays, isn't it... yeah. So, I can really use it in my speech? What if someone needs it?
Moss: Oh, no, no, people will still be able to go online and everything. It will still work.
Jen: Oh, good, good...
Moss: I tell you, you present this to the shareholders and you will get quite the response.
Jen: Can I touch it? It's so light!
Moss: Of course it is, Jen. The Internet doesn't weigh anything.
Jen: No, of course it doesn't.
[laughs nervously]
Roy: Hey! What is Jen doing with the Internet?
Jen: Moss said I could use it for my speech.
Roy: Are you insane? What if she drops it?
Jen: I won't drop it, I'll look after it.
Roy: No. No, no, no, no, Jen. No, this needs to go straight back to Big Ben.
Jen: Big Ben?
Moss: Yep. It goes on top of Big Ben. That's where you get the best reception.

A series of cubes

[Anonymous Coward]

So the Internet is now a series of cubes?