I haven’t tried SPAN and don’t see it listed as a Google app
but I have tried SERVAL mesh (which is currently available). The need to root a phone in order to enable
ad hoc networking limits the utility of these apps to the community at large
but it offers some interesting opportunities to speculate. Old phones can be cheap, especially if they
can’t be used as phones… think of that blacklisted CDMA phone that you couldn’t
manage to change the IMEI on… what’s its market value? If you were to tie it to a $20 solar panel
and throw it up on someone’s roof you’d have a disposable node that any
anarchist would love. If you put one
at the focal point of a satellite dish how far down the block could you get? Better yet, could you use the phone itself
as the driven element of a homebrew yagi?
A city-wide mesh would require several phones per block and probably
wouldn’t be very practical but imagine trying to cover a smaller area… Hmmm