A start-up company out of San Diego, On-Ramp Wireless, is developing a new Wi-Fi technology that uses the same 2.4 Ghz frequencies as today’s wireless routers, but it has the ability to transmit a signal as far as 45 miles away from the source! Their new “Ultra Link Processing” isn’t intended for your home computer, because it sends a slow trickle of data at a time (with a considerable amount of error-correction for noise-resistance). Instead, they propose using it for scenarios where a constant, reliable stream of no more than 50 bits of data per second would be useful, such as “smart grid” electrical meters or for real-time location tracking within a local area.
Currently, no such technology really exists. The cellular network can be used, but their data networks are already seeing heavy utilization with the growing number of tablets, netbooks, and smartphones (not to mention cellular networks requiring monthly service fees).
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