LTE Upgrade Will Let Phones Connect To Nearby Devices Without Towers

An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from MIT's Technology Review: A new feature being added to the LTE protocol that smartphones use to communicate with cellular towers will make it possible to bypass those towers altogether. Phones will be able to "talk" directly to other mobile devices and to beacons located in shops and other businesses. Known as LTE Direct, the wireless technology has a range of up to 500 meters, far more than either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It is included in update to the LTE standard slated for approval this year, and devices capable of LTE Direct could appear as soon as late 2015. ... Researchers are, for example, testing LTE Direct as a way to allow smartphones to automatically discover nearby people, businesses, and other information.

Comments

They've reinvented CB radio!

[Ozoner]

Once there was private peer-to-peer radio. It was called "Ham Radio". But the companies couldn't charge for it, so they made the radios always work through their base stations and called it "Cellular Radio". And of course they removed the peer-to-peer function.

But wait, now it's back! (in a way that can be monetised of course).

Re:They've reinvented CB radio!

[satsuke]

Ham radio (well, packet ax25) is/was so slow that any kind of peer to peer exchange would be almost worthless by modern standards.

1200/9600baud is fine for station to station packet, but again, worthless for anything more modern.

Also, the cellular network interfaces with the PSTN, something HAM could technically do, but with a ton of restrictions on content and open to anyone to listen to.

ham radio has a good place in the toolkit in terms of emergency communications, but only than and only in small pieces until the cell networks recover.

Beacons?

[dutchwhizzman]

So now we have to turn off our phones too if we don't want companies to follow us in their stores? We solved this for WiFi (random MAC addresses), I do hope they will solve it for LTE before it's implemented.

Re:How much is that doggy in the window? (song lin

[Anonymous Coward]

500 meters in a terremote, or other disaster, could be a long perilous walk, and LTE Direct could save lives.

Re:How much is that doggy in the window? (song lin

[kilodelta]

Actually it sounds like a great place for a black hat to play!

Re:How much is that doggy in the window? (song lin

[penguinoid]

The increased connectivity during a disaster is a minor side-effect. You'll be able to use your phone in large buildings with poor connectivity, which is the major reason people will want this.