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New York Times Sunday Magazine article on WiFi & VoIP

September 18th, 2005
Posted by Paul Smith

Clive Thompson has written an article featuring yours truly and the WCN project in the NYT Sunday Magazine about using WiFi networks for voice & data communications in the event of emergencies like Katrina that knock out the incumbent terrestrial systems.

You can use WiFi to build a do-it-yourself phone system that is highly resistant to disaster.

You sure can!

There’s one point in the article worth clarifying. There is I think a misconception about VoIP that you need to talk into your computer with a headset and a microphone. Actually, with an adapter called an ATA, which is about the size of a small paperback book, you can use your regular handset telephone, and it will ring and get a dialtone just like if it was plugged into a regular phone line. There are also dedicated VoIP phones that have the ATA guts inside, so you just plug it straight in to your broadband connection. These phones are like the kind you see in offices, with additional buttons for call waiting, transfer, etc. And then there are wireless VoIP handsets, which are like cordless phones or cellular phones but connect via WiFi. Other than that, a spot-on article, Clive: thanks for the limelight!

I also want to acknowledge some people involved in this effort. First, Sascha and Dave and the folks at CUWiN; it’s their hard work and software that made our Chicago network possible. And of course, Mac & Sharon Dearman and the whole RadioResponse crew:

When Katrina hit, Smith and other volunteer communications enthusiasts rushed down to Louisiana. In Rayville, his team of techies clambered up a local tower to blast WiFi signals 50 miles through the countryside; their signals reached refugees clustered in church basements with computers but no Internet connections.

It wasn’t my team at all. We were all Mac’s troops ;)

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 18th, 2005 at 12:25 am and is filed under General, Katrina Wireless Response. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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