Wireless data links for telemetry, south-eastern US?

That was the key word, "finding them" :-)

Nope.

Hitching a ride is what I am after. Some sort of data packet shuttle service.

Thanks, added Orbcomm to my "must call them" list.

Well, there is a cost cap on this. Sat is (usually) expensive but I'll find out.

The radius would be thousands of miles and not all inside the US.

This is what makes cell so attractive. The installed base is very large so that a change in frequencies or protocol will be very slow or will not happen at all.

Thanks, Jim, and Steve. For some reason Steve's post did come through, probably because it had a university *.edu address. Very puzzling, but nice.

The locations of cell sites are not publicly available. They used to be, many years ago, when each site was FCC licensed on a latitude/longitude basis. So, a lot of that information is dated and inaccurate by now.

There are companies that do drive testing for the carriers for competitive / network quality concerns. Telephia is one such company if memory serves. They drive around in trucks making automated calls with specialized "handsets". Usually the carrier provides the handset, so they can track/collect data on their end as well as the mobile drive unit.

But I'm sure that data's expensive, and there are probably many hoops to go through to get it, along with confidentiality agreements, etc... So, forget that approach for most casual users.

Another option is to look at public (and some private) tower companies. American Tower, SBA, Crown Castle, GTP, etc... If they have their tower inventories in the clear (most do, even if with registration requirements), you can pretty much guess the smaller towers hold cellular/PCS (as opposed to taller legacy paging / broadcast type sites). Ditto for rooftops.

Of course, that won't tell you whose on them (which carrier), but major metro centers are cloud-covered with signal anyway.

I mention the public tower companies because unless the tower is close to an airport (and a few other restrictions), there no requirement to register the tower with FCC (FAA - long story). All of which means shorter towers; those likely to hold PCS and Cellular, are not available in public databases at FCC either.

I wouldn't give you a nickle for the entire Google tower site database.

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At a first cut you might wish to consider General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) modems. The operating cost is based on data volume rather than pure monthly. Otherwise, you may wish to look at what can be done with ISM bands.

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That is an expensive phone, unless all the minutes rollover forever.

They do roll over. By now I have a bazillion minutes. I don't think there is any cheaper way to have a cell phone and always keep the same cell number. All those other deals I looked at required prepaid cards that would expire in rather short time frames, between one and three months.

I pay around five bucks a month. That's it.

Do you know who the carrier would be in the SE?

That would mean our own RF links. It's what we are doing right now and it requires a link through local premises. However, the goal is to have the units send their data straight to a headquarters or a service location.

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months.

I pay $0.25/min and $0.05/sms, no monthly. As long as i maintain $100 in the account it rolls over forever.

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Same as the cell phone services and maybe a few small players piggybacking / reselling bandwidth on the main nets.

bands.

location.

That could be difficult with ISM without running concentrators. Still limited by line of sight. GPRS is nearly global in coverage, the modems seem to be about US$ 1000 each or less.

No min usage either? Which service is that?

Ok, yeah, we were planning on contacting those first. According to one poster in this thread Verizon seems to be the prevalent carrier down there.

How can GPRS be global if it uses a cell network? Cell networks have plenty of holes in their coverage. But anyhow, $1000 modem cost is outrageous, that would blow the method straight out of the water. It needs to be well under $50, which GSM and CDMA would be.

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months.

AT&T GoPhone. Inexpensive, low feature phones are common with it as well. It is kind of a variation of pre-paid.

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location.

Global in the sense that GPRS is available anywhere GSM cell service is available. Thus it would include Moscow, Kampala, Beijing, Canberra, Marseille, etc.

This one?

Now for the pesky fine print:

Quote: "Amounts deposited into your account expire as follows: cards less than $25, 30 days; cards $25 to $75, 90 days; $100 cards, 365 days. Unused account balance is forfeited upon expiration."

IMHO that is not a good deal at all. Sorry, but there I've got the better deal, much better (with VirginMobile).

But leaves out much of America. A neighbor fell for the GSM deal, signed on the dotted line, for two years. That was before the 30-day cool-off was signed into law. Had to put a yagi on the roof and his cell phone was, ahem, not quite wireless anymore.

Has anyone really used one of these phones serial/data port to send SMS ?

If so, how ?

don

No, didn't need that function yet. But the phones aren't that different from the ones used for regular (expensive) service. Nowadays a true serial link is unusual, it all goes towards USB.

For mine, this way:

OK, how about the user interface docs ?

Is it AT command set or another ?

Thanks

don