A recent report claimed that anyone who considers travel to remote parts of the globe or in a plane as a refuge from mobile phone calls should enjoy it while it lasts, because areas until now out of reach are set to get connected.
The story said that a new generation of mobile networks is being built out of boxes no bigger than a microwave oven that are extending the reach of traditional networks of base stations, satellites and masts to places not worth the attention of big operators.
Georgina Prodham wrote, in her story for Reuters, that at this week's 3GSM wireless trade show in Barcelona, a crop of start-up and more established firms showed off technology that can be packed up and carried off to just about anywhere to connect hundreds of people at a time.
Israel-based Alvarion, better known for its WiMax broadband wireless technology, is one of the companies expanding into this niche but growing market.
Prodham continued by saying that Alvarion, which estimates the size of the current market at several hundred million dollars, has connected populations in Micronesia, on cruise ships and in disaster zones where normal communications have been knocked out.
It sells what it calls a network in a box -- a complete network containing a mobile switching center, a base station controller and a base transceiver station which it says is the world's tiniest complete GSM network.
"Our smallest box can be lifted up by one person," Gilad Peleg, Alvarion's director of compact cellular networks, told Reuters. He says such a box would typically be used to connect a few hundred callers in a radius of up to 20 kilometres (12 miles).
The network can be just local, for use in military or post-disaster situations, or can be connected through the box to a satellite or wider GSM network.
"We use it in places like Alaska where they have a base station on shore but there are fishing boats offshore that need some communication," says Peleg.
"They use their phones when they're coming in from their catch to actually sell their fish before they hit the shore, adds Alvarion's marketing chief, Carlton O'Neal.
The story claimed that other firms are impatiently eyeing the in-flight market, estimated in the industry to be potentially worth as much as $3 billion annually, despite surveys that show most passengers do not want to make calls in the air.
