By Jeff Paul
Open Garden wants you to forget SMS and IM and go with OM — off-the-grid messaging — using their peer-to-peer mesh network.
“Forget SMS and IM, here comes OM (off-the-grid messaging)…FireChat creates a new way to communicate with our phones that does not require a data plan or even a network,” they declare on a new video released today.
Open Garden’s encrypted texting app FireChat allows private messaging to groups or individuals without an Internet connection. The app has become popular at protests when authorities try to shut down or spy on centralized channels of communication.
The new video clearly explains how mesh networks work without WIFI or cell service plans, and how it gains in speed, strength and usefulness as more users are added.
If they grow large enough, decentralized mesh networks like these may one day replace how we access the Internet, making current Internet service providers (ISP) obsolete.