A research team from Flinders University, Australia, have come out with a way of getting calls through, even when there is no network coverage. This is being done with the help of WiFi and WiFi-capable mobile phones.

The team has developed a software which can be installed on WiFi capable mobile phones. This software detects WiFi-enabled mobile phones within its WiFi radius. These mobile phones in the vicinity behave as cell towers and direct calls to the destination mobile phone. However, this is possible only if the phones are within the WiFi radius of each other. It is not necessary that only one phone comes into the picture for the transferring of the call. Several phones available in the vicinity can come into play for this and form a network.

In places where the mobile phone density is higher, the technology can be of greater use. However, one can expect mobile phone density to be high only in urban areas, which will already have network coverage. So where can the new technology be used? The University mentions that their software can especially be used in places where the network has been disrupted on account of some disaster - for example in places like Haiti, where there will be mobile phone density but no network.