I see you.

This project is an exploration of our relationship with mobile phones. Using a Nuand bladeRF software-defined radio  as the transceiver and  OpenBTS for the protocol, I configured a picocell, brought it down to the London Underground, and through a GSM exploit mobile phones connected to it receiving the message “I see you.” as a welcome message to the network. The mobile network was also configured to forward any sent message to all the people connected to it, which meant almost everybody on the tube. On every run, over 100 mobile phones were connected and a few text messages were received.

The configuration for the picocell was also part of the project, as was reaching out to the community behind the open-source project from the people at Nuand. As a way of giving back to the community, a blog with instructions on how to set up a picocell was written.