Looking for cellular equipment to make hotspot

[Jimmah]

Just curious about cell technology and how one goes about making a cell hotspot. I've heard of the majicjack device, pretty neat but it doesn't support linux, are there any DIY or pre-fabbed devices out there in the sub 1000$ range?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Fardringle]

Are you looking for something to make your own transmitter of cell phone signals?
Or something that will use the broadband Internet access that you have through your cell phone and make it available to multiple computers?
Or something else entirely?

MagicJack is a device that lets you attach a regular phone to your computer to make phone calls over the Internet instead of on a regular phone line, so I'm not sure how it would relate to what you are asking...

 

[Jimmah]

I believe majicjack were creating a sort of short range cell hotspot device, I don't know much else on it though.

Mainly what I'm looking for is info on the parts required to make transmiting and recieving cell data. I remember a while ago on these forums about a researcher who was iving a lecture about cellphones and had a device which would show up as a cell tower to most/all phones and route the data through VOIP. I thought the idea was very interesting but lost my bookmarks when my machine died, and now I cannot find it for the life of me.

What I'm interested in (I'm a student, 'tis the time where we start picking our research projects) is cellular access point to VOIP transmission, and since this is the networking forum you guys are the right people to ask

 

[aE0n]

I think you might be talking about AT&T 3G microcell: http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/3gmicrocell/

I don't think making one of these on your own will be very easy.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

What are you trying to do? Have a hotspot so other devices (PC, wifi devices) can connect or have a hotspot so phones can connect?

 

[Jimmah]

I think you might be talking about AT&T 3G microcell: http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/3gmicrocell/

I don't think making one of these on your own will be very easy.

Akin to this yes, but with the ability to support more than 4 users, and not homemade as that would suck.


"What are you trying to do? Have a hotspot so other devices (PC, wifi devices) can connect or have a hotspot so phones can connect?"

Phones only, without restrictions on users, and if I can find the right hardware hopefully something I can mess around with in Linux.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I think you'd have a hard time with the switchover from GSM to Wifi and back again. T-Mobile had a wifi hotspot that could do this.

 

[gsaldivar]

http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Exten...ata/B000LBVEI0

 

[aE0n]

I don't think what you're trying to do it possible, setting up your own microcell-to-VoIP.
If it were, people would be setting these up everywhere for free cell phone service. Unfortunately there is licensing on the radio frequencies and you can't just set up your own phone cells. Companies pay a lot for the rights to those frequencies and will not allow you to use them for free.

On the other hand, you can use smartphones and SIP service to get a VoIP system going over WiFi.

 

[Jimmah]

I don't think what you're trying to do it possible, setting up your own microcell-to-VoIP.
If it were, people would be setting these up everywhere for free cell phone service. Unfortunately there is licensing on the radio frequencies and you can't just set up your own phone cells. Companies pay a lot for the rights to those frequencies and will not allow you to use them for free.

On the other hand, you can use smartphones and SIP service to get a VoIP system going over WiFi.

The smartphone idea is one we're thinking should be implemented either way, it's inexpensive enough.

I thought low-power cellular devices were allowed as long as they were within a certain mw and range? More researching I suppose.

Thanks everyone or your help thus f ar.

 

[JackMDS]

If your thinking is that you can use one line to allow few people independently connect at the same time directly from phones to other phones?

I doubt that you can technically do it and it also might be a violation of the Telco's TOS.

If you are looking for a stand alone multiple WIFI connection through 3G.

http://3gstore.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=35

 

[Jimmah]

Well, the project is two stages thus far; one is the wireless mesh network we're building, the other is using said network to have cellular capabilities routing all traffic to an Asterix box then out the VOIP line.

So far we have 3 machines built and are working on the mesh part, next would be the cellular hardware. The networking is pretty easy, if we can only find the cell gear in theory we could have it all going for end of semester.

 

[imagoon]

The smartphone idea is one we're thinking should be implemented either way, it's inexpensive enough.

I thought low-power cellular devices were allowed as long as they were within a certain mw and range? More researching I suppose.

Thanks everyone or your help thus f ar.

My company installs microcells (in highrises etc.) Generally the gear is expensive. It is generally driven by the specialization in those ranges and the reliability requirements. Your cell phone is considered an emergency device (IE 911 / 999 etc) and the mini towers have to meet a certain reliability requirement because of this.

To give you a rough estimate: It was in the ball park of $35,000 to light 3 floors of a building. This specific cell was an uplink cell (DAS system.) There are other types that we have installed that require T1's that get attached to the provider's networks also. I have never seen one (at least a major install one) that would use cell service to voip (that was not the providers own system.)

The closest for you I can think of is the emergency mini cells that were used during katrina for example. However they used cell phones that were "detached" and were not registered to a providers networks. It gets further complicated that most phones will not roam on your minicell and when they do they would likely show up as "unsecured" or international. The phones will prefer a weak provider signal over a strong "unknown."

 

[jlazzaro]

doing so on the cellular level is probably out of your budget and capabilities...smart phones running SIP clients is probably your best bet.

 

[Jimmah]

Rather disappointing but fascinating to read about nonetheless. Thanks all for your time and input.

 

[Jimmah]

Ahh I finally found something almost exactly what I was looking for:

http://openbts.sourceforge.net/

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/083010-open-source-voip-cell-phones-at-burning-man.html

Pretty much the exact thing we were looking to do, except someone else has done it, so it's no longer allowed. Oh well.

 

[imagoon]

Ahh I finally found something almost exactly what I was looking for:

http://openbts.sourceforge.net/

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/083010-open-source-voip-cell-phones-at-burning-man.html

Pretty much the exact thing we were looking to do, except someone else has done it, so it's no longer allowed. Oh well.

I find it interesting how they completely ignore the licensed band issues. Fire that thing up in the middle of New York and expect to find yourself facing an FCC fine of a couple grand to several 100k depending how far you decided to crank up the transmitter.