New idea?

I worked on a project with BT on exactly this concept more than ten years ago. Their thinking was that if there were 2 billion mobile phones in the world, all connected with something like Bluetooth (high tech idea then), you would simply not need central network operators and that the spare capacity in all the phones and their connections would be sufficient to power an entire 'informal' (now 'social') network.

Of course BT were interested because they saw it as a long-term threat to all mobile and fixed-line networks. They were right.

Networks collapse as Machine-to-Machine app connects users

Dateline: 16 June 2012

The source of a viral Application giving smartphone users free connectivity was revealed at the World Broadband Conference today. It is a rogue App using Machine-to-Machine (M2M) links and it is progressively connecting every 4G digital device worldwide. Phone makers have confirmed that M2M technology is embedded in recent devices, ready to launch premium services like the dating App ...