Secure telephones

[Thomas Shaddack]

On Sat, 17 Jul 2004, Steve Schear wrote:

> How about building a secure cell phone using GnuRadio as a core? That way you
> have maximum control afforded by the protocols.

Several reasons valid at this moment (though I suppose (and hope) the 
situation will improve in next couple years).

There is no available implementation for the low-level GSM protocols. 
Doing it from scratch looks like a royal bitch.

The ADC/DAC chips for the required bandwidth are AWFULLY expensive. (I'd 
be happy if proven wrong here. (Well, I'd be happy if proven wrong in 
other two arguments too.))

The required processing power (and the related power (and cooling) 
consumption) is impractically high.

But principially it is a very good idea, whose time will hopefully come 
soon.