I decided to post this in Tips and Strategies as an encouragement or inducement for orgonite-tossers to be sure to get those damn towers, first, then focus on the more creative gifting efforts where they live.
Thanks, Whoever You Are (unsigned email) for sending this to me!
~Don
Plus this article was published in The Sunday Times on 13 Feb 2011:
Magic box to replace eyesore phone masts
A French technology firm has developed a new kind of aerial that fits inside a case about the size of a Rubik’s cube
A big expansion of Britain’s mobile phone networks could be accomplished without the need to erect thousands more costly, unsightly and energy-guzzling masts. The French technology firm Alcatel-Lucent has developed a new kind of aerial that fits inside a case about the size of a Rubik’s cube — just 2½in on each side.
Fastened to the side of a building and hooked up to the internet, a single cube could do everything a 100ft mast currently accomplishes.
“Our breakthrough, called lightRadio, has the capability to make base stations and antennas virtually invisible,” says Wim Sweldens, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless division. “These visual monstrosities block more of the landscape with each new technology. But with lightRadio, base stations and large towers virtually disappear.”
Inside each lightRadio cube is a wide-spectrum aerial that, using Alcatel-Lucent’s software, is capable of detecting and handling voice calls, data and even the new extra-fast “4G” mobile broadband all at the same time. At present, each of these services demands a large, separate aerial fitted to every phone tower. The company sees a future in which thousands of the low-cost units are fitted to the side of buildings, greatly adding to existing coverage.
Alcatel-Lucent also intends to eliminate the power-hungry cabinet of electronics found at the base of each tower. Like a telephone exchange, this is the hardware that manages calls and data traffic. In contrast, each lightRadio cube would relay that traffic over the internet to large, centralised exchanges, which are much more flexible — they could concentrate on voice calls during the day and data traffic in the evening, for example — and are more energy-efficient.
This rerouting could be done over any existing broadband connection, although ultimately a dedicated national — and very costly — fibreoptic network would be needed, particularly if 4G services were to be catered for. The Alcatel-Lucent boxes could also be used to create a blanket network of wi-fi hotspots.
Faster mobile broadband services cannot come soon enough, because the mobile networks are struggling to keep up with the demand for data from smartphones and tablets. According to the US technology company Cisco, wireless data traffic is expected to increase 26-fold between 2010 and 2015.
Alcatel-Lucent will be conducting European field trials later this year, in partnership with the Orange network, with the first lightRadio boxes expected to appear as early as 2012.
Just don’t hold your breath waiting for the potential 150Mbps speed of 4G (more than 10 times the theoretical maximum speed of 3G): Britain does not even have a timetable in place for freeing up the part of the wireless spectrum the service will use.