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After all, if the US right wing is right about the left, those that love their guns and bibles will soon be loving their Internet suitcases, too, as they use them against what will presumably be a doomsday-esque future repressive US government.
The news comes forth from the New York Times, which also explains that 'shadow' mobile networks are also being built, with both shadow phone and suitcase/mesh Wi-Fi Internet networks to be deployed when those repressive governments shut down phone and Internet services in an attempt to crush dissent.
The august paper cited 'dozens of interviews, planning documents and classified diplomatic cables', which spoke of basic and unsuspicious hardware that could easily be smuggled into repressed countries, restoring phone and Internet service to the oppressed peoples and allowing them to continue their protests and presumed attempts at overthrowing said repressive governments.
US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was quoted by the NYTimes saying: 'We see more and more people around the globe using the Internet, mobile phones and other technologies to make their voices heard as they protest against injustice and seek to realize their aspirations.
"There is a historic opportunity to effect positive change, change America supports. So we're focused on helping them do that, on helping them talk to each other, to their communities, to their governments and to the world."
Although this is the first time we've had the US admit to creating a device to share the Internet in a suitcase, there have been many previous Wi-Fi mesh networks, as well as developments that let mobile phones each be their own receiver and broadcaster in a meshed cellular network.
A mesh network using Wi-Fi enabled smartphones and independent repeaters would remove the need for multiple base stations and would be much harder to block, although the development of mesh Wi-Fi networks is far more advanced than that for smartphones.
Either way, it's not just information that wants to be free, it is people, too.
The development of technologies to bypass government blocks by a government that some believe will one day institute such blocks of its own is an interesting and welcome development.
The only question now is how soon the plans for these technologies will leak to the Internet at large, letting anyone who wants to build such devices put one together - hopefully at a cost far, far lower than $2m.
For more, take a look at the link above and at iTWire colleague William Atkins' story, 'Shadow Internet to bypass repressive governments'.
