The Solution For Communicating With No Cell Service: Beartooth
Meet The Handheld Device Connecting Smart Phones Via Bluetooth For Communicating In Notoriously Bad Cell Reception Areas
In the digital age we live in, we rely heavily on being connected. Unfortunately, those with an adventurous spirit must often sacrifice communications to enjoy the great outdoors placing them in a potentially hazardous situation. Hence the importance of the Beartooth.
“We are the true cliché sense of a startup, I literally work all the time. The way to make sure you never go outdoors again is to start an outdoors company”, says Michael Monaghan inventor and founder of Beartooth, a device that works in conjunction with a user’s smartphone via an app allowing individuals to communicate when there is no cell service.
“The Beartooth device at its core is a data modem; it is a small device about the size of a pack of cards that you can carry with you. The Beartooth communicate with each other via a 900mHz frequency hopping spread spectrum LoRa radio. That’s a lot of word soup, but what it means is the LoRa allows it to communicate over long range with low power and the frequency hopping allows almost limitless channels. So, unlike the old walkie talkies where you had to worry about talking over someone, you don’t have that here”, explained Michael.
Michael, left a career in finance to pursue development of the Beartooth. “I had always had an interest in technology, and had invested in technology. I thought that this product would be something that would benefit a lot of people, so I started the company in 2013. We began pre-selling the product in February of 2016, and sent out our first deliveries this month”, said Michael.
“I came up with the idea while skiing with my college roommate at Bridger Bowl in 2012. There’s no cell service there and after skiing all day we got separated. We found each other at the end of the day and looked in our pockets and we had these $600 super computers that are hamstrung by the fact that they have to be tied to these billion dollar fixed networks. So, we started thinking, what if there were a way to just make the devices communicate directly with each other, because let’s face it most of the time when you want to talk to someone, they are fairly close to you, within a few miles”, Michael recalled.
Growing up in rural Montana, Michael understands the difficulty of working, playing, and living in areas without communication. Growing up he skied frequently and as an adult he got into surfing. “I’ve surfed all over the world Central and South America. When we surf this area outside of Cabo there’s this really desolate area called the East Cape and your buddies might be a beach or two away and that’s another place that would be perfect to use the Beartooth”, Michael stated. As Beartooth is not tied to a cellular network, users can communicate with each other even when traveling in other countries or outside of their cellular network without paying roaming charges.
The Beartooth device claims a range of 5 miles for talking and 10 miles for texting via line of site. However, further distances are possible by making hops from one Beartooth to another utilizing a concept called mesh networking. “In the walkie-talkie industry, a lot of the statistics they use are theoretical, and we found that frustrating. You know, you go to Walmart and open up a blister pack of radios and they say they work X number of miles and you go out try them and they only work a few hundred yards. We demanded real world testing in everything we did. We tested it out skiing, hiking, on construction crews and out in oil fields, everything we did was real world testing”, explained Michael.
In addition to allowing users to talk and text with each other, the Beartooth also features mapping tools. The mapping features work off downloadable maps that utilize GPS to share an individual’s location. “Included in the Beartooth app is a mapping feature where users can pull down satellite maps, topo maps, street maps and can save these before going off grid. So, for example, if someone were going RVing with a group in a location where there was no cell service, they could pull down the maps for the area and once they have that they can communicate over the Beartooth network and see other people in the group’s location”, said Michael.
The network for Beartooth is shared with anyone who has a Beartooth device; however, the communications are private and can only be seen by the intended recipient. Users can set up various groups to communicate with, and only the users in that group can see the information transmitted. The application is similar to social networking, everyone is on the same network, but only those who the user ads to their groups will see the transmitted information.
“We’re an interesting origin story. We’re not in Silicon Valley or in San Diego; we’re here in Bozeman, Montana so we’ve built this pretty forward leaning technology right out here in the Rockies. So, we not only built the product, but we have the perfect back door to go out and test it and use it”, Michael stated.
The ability for users to create their own communication network regardless of cellular service provides new opportunities for adventurous soles to explore the outdoors without the hazards of losing communication.
Jared Langenegger
A graduate of New Mexico State University with bs in wildlife and fisheries biology Jared spent 15 years working in fisheries and parks management. He enjoys camping, fishing, hunting, painting, and wood working.
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Beartooth, the handheld device that works with your smartphone to keep you connected when there is no cell service. Features include voice, text, maps, security encryption, charging capability, and mesh networking.