A messaging software, FireChat, that allows messages to bounce from one smart device to another to another without a mobile data connection is slowly emerging as a challenge to traditional messaging.
Micha Benoliel, chief executive and founder of Open Garden that developed Firechat, said wider enough adoption of the peer-to-peer service could make radio wireless networks used by traditional telcos redundant.
"We have noticed that people don't recharge their (mobile data) packs if they run out mid-month and as such go without messaging for the rest of the month. FireChat can allow them to do so without needing to renew a data plan," Benoliel told ET at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
A FireChat that goes from one device bounces off other devices in the vicinity that have the app installed in them until it reaches its destination. If any of these devices is connected to the internet then the message is sent over the web to its destination.
Benoliel said encryption of the message sent will ensure that it cannot be read by any of the devices it was bouncing off. It would only be decrypted at the destination.
"Keep in mind that to reach long distances the system still needs a backhaul to the Internet," he said.
This can happen over Wi-Fi or even a cabled connection. For example, if a phone is in a coffee shop connected to the web over Wi-Fi and a message has been bouncing nearby it can go to the Internet through the phone in the coffee shop.
FireChat, which gained fame during the Hong Kong student protest, has found several use cases in India but so far most people have adopted it only in crises. It was used during the Chennai floods for communication where wireless networks were down, Benoliel said.
In San Francisco, Open Garden has found that with about 5%-7% penetration FireChat is able to find a way to send out nearly 90% of the messaging, he said.
Growing smart phone penetration and population density makes India an ideal destination for such mass-based communication system.
http://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/messaging-app-that-works-without-data-connection-gains-ground/51134554
Micha Benoliel, chief executive and founder of Open Garden that developed Firechat, said wider enough adoption of the peer-to-peer service could make radio wireless networks used by traditional telcos redundant.
"We have noticed that people don't recharge their (mobile data) packs if they run out mid-month and as such go without messaging for the rest of the month. FireChat can allow them to do so without needing to renew a data plan," Benoliel told ET at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
A FireChat that goes from one device bounces off other devices in the vicinity that have the app installed in them until it reaches its destination. If any of these devices is connected to the internet then the message is sent over the web to its destination.
Benoliel said encryption of the message sent will ensure that it cannot be read by any of the devices it was bouncing off. It would only be decrypted at the destination.
"Keep in mind that to reach long distances the system still needs a backhaul to the Internet," he said.
This can happen over Wi-Fi or even a cabled connection. For example, if a phone is in a coffee shop connected to the web over Wi-Fi and a message has been bouncing nearby it can go to the Internet through the phone in the coffee shop.
FireChat, which gained fame during the Hong Kong student protest, has found several use cases in India but so far most people have adopted it only in crises. It was used during the Chennai floods for communication where wireless networks were down, Benoliel said.
In San Francisco, Open Garden has found that with about 5%-7% penetration FireChat is able to find a way to send out nearly 90% of the messaging, he said.
Growing smart phone penetration and population density makes India an ideal destination for such mass-based communication system.
http://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/messaging-app-that-works-without-data-connection-gains-ground/51134554
