World's first "FREE TO USE" Smartphone?

VolkFI
https://volkfi.com/

World's first "FREE TO USE" Smartphone?
Mrwhosetheboss
Published on Mar 21, 2019
The Volk One is the world's cheapest smartphone to use in 2019 - at $0...Find out how it works, and if you should get one.


Phone Service Without A Carrier?
Boot Sequence
Published on Mar 12, 2019
A smartphone startup claims that it can deliver phone service to everyone without actually having a carrier. That company is called Volk Fi, and it's an interesting concept.

Spoiler: How it works...

This is how it works, you buy their phone called the Volk One which is pretty much a regular flagship Android phone with your choice of Snapdragon 845 or 855 and they come equipped with a long range RF transmitter. With traditional carriers your phone will connect to the nearest cell tower and that’s where you get your service. With Volk fi, your phone will connect to other Volk One phones to create the network. How are you going to have access to the internet? It's pretty simple. If you’re connected to wifi, you have access to the internet and if someone in the area needs internet, the signal will bounce through your phone so they could have access to it too. The phones also comes with a sort of router that connects to your home network and has the same long range RF chip. That way, you or someone else could connect to the internet using it. Basically, this is a mesh network like what you would find in your home if you have wifi pods.

Exploring The Volk Fi The First Crowdsourced Mobile Network Dashboard
Robert Le
Published on Mar 16, 2019


Veritek: Volk FI
Veritan Gaming
Published on Mar 16, 2019
Discussing an emergent cellular disruptor set to ship its first round of devices in December of 2019. Leave feedback or even share your own thoughts about the new tech in the comments below!

 

Great idea if all you do is run from starbucks to starbucks. However, us in the real world NEED cellular connectivity to communicate. Where I live, even the networks have spotty coverage in a lot of areas.

HMSCOTT, anyone you know able to invite me to this? I have an idea I want to try with it.

 

I'm not in a dense enough locale to try it myself so I haven't pursued it, but I thought others might benefit from knowing about it, so that's why I posted it.

You can contact them for invites, perhaps downloading the software provides some way of contacting "nodes" near you - so you can ask them for an invite?

It seems to be a communally driven social network system, so it must have social networking as part of it's implementation. Please let us know what you find.

 

I’m in the same boat. Not enough population near me. Maybe I can strap a couple of hundred of them and solar chargers on moose in the area.

 

The mind boggles. All those moose chatting to each other. Won't there be congestion during the mating season?

 

Only for two or three days.

 

Who talks on phone these anyway ? lol

 

@Rengsey R. H. Jr. where I live call quality via messengers is simply ridiculous. \=

 

Ok. Looked at the video. Idea is sort of like Emule. You want to get more than the minimum, then you have to give.

It isn't going to work for two reasons.

1) To work as a repeater the phone has to be on. The battery is just not up to being on all day.


2) The theory that connections get better the more that are out there is flawed.

Think. You wan't to call your mate that is a mile away. In theory with line of sight you should get a direct connection, but you won't so you are going to use some strangers phone as a repeater. Not too bad. Time comes he does it to you.

But what if the density of phones allows for calls 100 miles away? No problem. 100 phones get used as repeaters. But if everybody does that the typical bandwidth available is just 1 part in 100 of the phone's capacity. Still practical so far. The catch is that word "typical". Your 100 mile phone call will pass through areas of high phone density, but also inevitably areas of low phone density. Low phone density means far fewer phones to share the load. Point will come when those living between cities will be all give and very little get...so they will bin their phones leaving those who remain in their area with an ever poorer deal. And then those dedicated few will give up in their turn.


All of this is networking 101, and is true for just about any network. Internet, Phones, Transport, it doesn't matter. Demand will rise till the capacity is limited by bottlenecks. At that point resource management or investment of some sort is highly desirable. Problem is no money available for ether because the network is rent free.

 

Second thoughts.

While these phones are doomed to failure, there is some merit in the idea. I don't think that a phone only net can work, but phone + internet is a possibility for data. Not for phone calls because the latency is too irritating for anything less than desperation.

But think. Just about every phone is fairly close to a WIFI, ether a hot spot or private. So the trick is to relay data to the nearest net connection. You still get problems like Internet providers getting miffed when somebody's supposedly private connection is at full capacity 24/7. It is still using data paths that must be paid for so they must ether get their cut or they will ban the practice.

If something like that is to work it would need standards and management but it has the potential to remove a lot of local mobile data bottlenecks. Basically it would be the WiFi providers negotiating with the mobile phone service providers.

One day your WIFI box might have a second channel which is public and totally outside your control.

 

Only if I get a discount for the electricity it uses or I will move to Lte full time.

 

It's a very viable concept...IDK how it will work for less dense areas, but it's worth a try even in fringe areas.

Of course the radio's aren't going to do multi-hops most of the time because there will be a close radio with direct wifi access, and so latency therefore won't be any worse than going through a range extender in your own home.

There is a lot of merit for this new concept given 5g mixing with Wifi integration as well, since we all try to make our data usage stretch by prefering a Wifi connection for internet and voice calls instead of cellular data.

It would take a wider adoption of the technology across handset makers, and maybe adding a long range connection to one's own "base" station (a 2nd phone kept at home, or office, or?) so the RF to wifi connection would work in less dense areas - and in normal coverage areas - keeping your data in your network, so to speak.

 

If you're relying on WiFi for this to work, why not just use one of the many (usually free) VoIP options out there?

Anyway, if it gives any sort of insight into how I think this would work: Even ignoring the issues already outlined, me at my suburban area next to a major city using a major network, I have zero signal sitting just outside my house. Far enough away from the house for WiFi but for some reason in a dead zone for LTE/3G/etc. To have any sort of use of this outside my house requires me to bug my neighbors to buy into this. Don't really want to be "that guy".

And when driving out in the boondocks, where are all the phone relays you'll need?

 

Not sure, but I think your own house "base station" would be such phone relay...you'd be the first anchor in your area, something for you to use for access - IDK how far the reach would be with an external antenna, then the device + base station set up should sell itself to friends and neighbors, even if they couldn't reach your base station or you theirs - except when visiting each other, or driving by.

 

And if you're on a capped data connection, then what?

 

Don't sign up for the "sharing" service, if you have nothing to "share".

Find a better data connection... often people have had their data connections for many years, and don't realize a phone call or two can unlock more speed, more features, and less cost when negotiating a new agreement to keep you from leaving a service. It's worth a call.

New modems + routers + wireless with higher speed could be available, and / or you can buy it yourself for more performance under the new contract / data cap. Or find another provider that can provide what you need.