A new company wants to let you become your own cell carrier, using your internet connection even when you’re away from home — and roaming onto the networks of other people doing the same. The company, helmed by former Facebook engineer Kashif Ali, is called Ukama, and it’s launching a crowdfunding campaign on engineering and maker-focused site Crowd Supply to get its devices out to people willing to try out the tech and start building the network.
This would work with cellular devices, so you need to provision them with a physical SIM card or an eSIM. One question is whether others are just going to let any roaming Ukama user make use of their Internet or will they charge "roaming fees"? Another is why not just use WiFi at home? With all this setup I'd think you could just secure your WiFi better otherwise.
In the US, Ukama will use Citizens Broadband Radio Service (or CBRS) spectrum, part of which is allocated for companies and members of the general public who want to make their own networks. So that mileage may vary in other countries, who could have all sorts of restrictions on spectrum usage.
Which is why many may just still stick to good old WiFi hotspots...
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Ukama is selling boxes that let you broadcast your home internet connection as LTE. It envisions people using it to build a crowd-sourced cell network.
