Mobile networks. Their speed and stability have been a concern for many years, and today it is not uncommon to lose your signal or have your connection quality deteriorate , even while you are in the center of a large city, such as Athens. When you are in a place where there are a lot of people gathered (such as a major sporting event), things get even worse… A startup from Silicon Valley, however, Artemis , founded in 2011 by entrepreneur Steve Perlman , aspires to solve this problem in a unique way, the pCell technology it has developed.
“Cell towers”, as we know them today, could be visually compared to huge “umbrellas” , which “serve” you as long as you are within range . You have to be close enough to be in their coverage, while, if you move too far, you will enter the “range” of another tower, provided there is one in the new area you are moving to. If, on the other hand, you are with many people and share the same cell, the overconsumption of data can “bring down” the system as a whole.
pCell wireless broadband technology approaches your access very differently. It allows every mobile device to connect wirelessly at full speed regardless of how many users are using the same wireless spectrum at the same time, while giving you the ability to enjoy fast connections without problems of “congestion” , dead zones or weak signal. For this reason, it wants to develop a network of “boxes”, the size of routers, called pWaves , which promise much better service in smaller areas. Instead of working against interference, pCells somehow “embrace ” the collision of radio waves and benefit from the transmission of signals that intentionally interfere with each other. By combining the incoming signals from several base stations, each user gets the equivalent of his own “personal cell” , which gives him the full capacity of the spectrum in each case and as a result much better “service” in a smaller area.
With this technology, you can get full bars of LTE signal, and in practice, you can get speeds up to 1,000 times faster than what we're used to. The technology also uses much less power, as pWave radios use a 1 milliwatt transmitter to deliver data compared to the 250 milliwatts used by most Wi-Fi radios. Best of all, it works with existing devices , so you don't need to change your equipment.
The consumer launch of pCell is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. Initially in San Francisco, where the company plans to place its transmitters on 350 rooftops in the city, while it will work with a telecommunications company to operate its services commercially. Later, in 2015, further expansion is expected, although it is still too early to talk about its “widespread adoption” . It sounds promising, however, and you can see more about it in the video below.
Source: digitallife.gr
