How Mobile Mesh Networks can Support Internet Affordability
By: Amber Mclennan
Tags: Mesh Networking, Mesh Networks, Telecommunication, Internet, Move To Mesh

How Mobile Mesh Networks can Support Internet Affordability

Load Sharing with Mobile Mesh Networks for Speed and Cost Savings

The world is dependent on connectivity, and data usage is growing. According to Ericsson’s latest mobility report, global smartphone traffic will increase 8X by 2022, and it would need a $500B investment in traditional infrastructure to maintain the status quo.

Despite data usage growing, the inability to afford a basic mobile internet connection remains a significant barrier for many. A new report from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) shows that as little as 1 GB of mobile data is too expensive for billions of people. The report goes further to state that over “60% of countries have unaffordable internet.” With the predicted infrastructure investments needed to match growth, this isn’t set to change anytime soon.

Innovative solutions, such as mobile mesh networking, could help reduce consumer costs and decrease strain on the network to support growth.

Why are mobile internet plans so expensive?

Competition Level: The number of operating telcos in a region can have a massive impact on price for the consumer. Those operating within a monopoly are able to charge more for fewer services received. For example, in Ethiopia there is only one telco for the population of 100 million. This has led to prices for 1 GB of data to be set at more than 10% of the average Ethiopian’s monthly income according to the A4AI.

Infrastructure: The cost of building infrastructure is very expensive, even more so in particular geographies. For those in landlocked countries, the price increases due to the need to lease international transit capacity. For island nations, the need to deploy submarine cables for both domestic and international services adds to the price. For large regions, the cost of building infrastructure over a bigger land mass incurs additional costs.

Once built, the maintenance and running costs create added expenses. For example, in Canada cell phone networks cover two million square kilometers, and the cost of capital improvements is approximately $2.5 billion a year according to the National Post.

Population Density: In areas with lower population levels, such as rural communities, telcos do not make as much of a return on their infrastructure investment due to a lack of customers. In order to compensate for the disparity between rural and urban areas, the bill is passed to everyone equally, and the price increases because few are paying. In contrast, areas with a higher population density on the same land mass, such as in India vs the USA, would be able to charge lower fees.

What is mobile mesh networking?

Mobile mesh networks form by creating peer-to-peer (or device-to-device) connections between mobile phones or IoT (internet of things) devices. Connections form through Bluetooth, WiFi direct, and existing communications technologies.

Once a device connects to RightMesh, a mobile mesh networking platform , it can send messages, files, data, etc, without being connected or reliant on Internet Service Provider (ISPs) or mobile data plans. This is done through data ‘hopping’ securely, from device to device, without being made visible to anyone, until it reaches the recipient.

How data is sent through a local mesh.

How can mobile mesh networks decrease mobile internet costs?

In contrast to typical infrastructures, RightMesh allows people to connect directly to each other and only use the internet when it is needed rather than being connected to the internet at all times, thereby decreasing the end users’ usage.

The larger impact on cost savings would be to the Telcos themselves, which could in turn be passed along to consumers.

Telco cost savings would occur in two ways:

Decreased infrastructure costs: Mobile mesh networks, like RightMesh, use only the devices people already have — their cell phones — to form localized meshes. Therefore, the need for expensive ISPs, cell towers, or fiber networks could be reduced which would dramatically decrease maintenance and development costs.

For example, an area that may have required two towers to provide connectivity to a region may only need one due to the alleviation of pressure on the network by connecting people directly to each other. Load Sharing: RightMesh can decrease the amount of pressure on the network and increase connectivity in two ways:

The platform can function completely offline.

Data can hop through multiple paths to the Internet spreading the load across many connections simultaneously.

Imagine, for example, a group of students in the same classroom, in the process of sharing a study guide with one another. Wifi connectivity on campus is poor and it is taking a long time for the document to download. If one user wants to accelerate the study guide delivery time to their device, they could connect to the group’s local mesh and request the file. The file is transmitted locally and reassembled on the requester’s device, rather than going through WiFi.

Not only would this approach speed up content delivery, RightMesh believes it could save a significant amount of energy as well. The company is currently exploring options to fund research to measure the economic and environmental savings per device. Early research from the RightMesh​ engineering team calculates that if all 6.8B mobile phones in use in the world were using mesh technology to optimize connectivity, there could be upwards of $12.5B in annual cost savings as well as 156,400 GWh in energy savings (this is equivalent to 30 large hydroelectric dams and power generation stations).

The future of connectivity

With the lack of internet affordability for the majority of the global population and the growing dependence we have on connectivity, alternative innovations like mobile mesh networking need to be considered by telecommunication providers. Platforms like RightMesh have the potential to greatly reduce infrastructure and maintenance costs, decrease pressure on the network, and make connectivity more accessible to all.