Artemis pCell: Your Own Private Cell Network?
Source: Stephanie Mlot
Imagine carrying a personal cell tower in your back pocket―delivering high-speed Internet browsing and zero-delay video streaming no matter your location or how many people were around you.
That's what Artemis Networks founder Steve Perlman (pictured below) had in mind when he created pCell, a new technology that provides full-speed mobile data to all devices, no matter how many users are sharing the same spectrum.
The service offers what Artemis called "a ubiquitous fiber-class broadband experience," available at all times on standard LTE devices like the iPhone or Android gadgets. This new system aims to eliminate the congestion, dead zones, and unreliable connections cell users have come to simply accept as the norm.
"PCell technology is a complete reinvention of wireless," Perlman said in a statement. "PCell delivers on the long-sought dream of ubiquitous, fast Internet, with the reliability and consistency previously only achievable through a wired connection. pCell is effectively mobile fiber."
Steve Perlman
Currently, when you stand in the middle of New York City's Times Square and try to upload photos to Facebook, your smartphone or tablet is competing with the hundreds of other users in the area who are also using their devices to text, make calls, load websites, play a video, and more. But today's cellular networks must make sure to avoid interference with one another, resulting in service slowdowns in congested areas. In November, for example, Verizon Wireless admitted that users in big cities were putting "pressure" on its 4G LTE network.
According to Perlman, pCell exploits this interference, combining transmitted signals from multiple pCell base stations (or pWave, pictured above) to create "personal cells," or pCells, of wireless energy around each mobile device.
"So, rather than hundreds of users taking turns sharing the capacity of one large cell, each user gets an unshared pCell, giving the full wireless capacity to each user at once," according to Artemis.
PCell is compatible with standard, unmodified, out-of-the box LTE devices, like the iPhone 5s and 5c, Samsung Galaxy S4, LTE dongles, and MiFi devices. The technology enables a standard LTE device to run at full speed throughout pCell coverage areas; wherever the system is not deployed, the device will default to conventional cellular coverage.
Currently in trials in San Francisco, pCell will be licensed to wireless carriers and independent ISPs, and should be ready for its first commercial deployment in one market at the end of the year. Artemis expects it to reach major markets in the U.S., Asia, and Europe by 2015.
Check out pCell in action in Artemis's video below.
Perlman is known for creating the now-defunct game-streaming service OnLive, which suffered massive layoffs in August 2012. He also created WebTV Networks, which was acquired by Microsoft for $503 million and renamed MSN TV. He first discussed this concept of personal cell networks back in 2011.
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