We all know that phone has been revolutionaized wit VOIP, I believe that Radio is about to take the next step itself. I searched for IPRadio on Google and came upon a few sites talking about it. Basically it is streaming a radio stations content via the HTTP protocol or the WWW. But, I think the only difference is that we don't have an acual IPRadio. I mean a physical one. It will basically consist of a mini computer with Wifi and the ability to play streamed media. Think about it, it will be great to be able to listen to any station, regardless if where in the world you are. All you need is WiFi signal. Just thought Ide mention another advantage to having a whole city, or better yet, a whole country as a hot spot. This will surely knock Satellite radio off because it is cheaper for both the station and the listener. Plus no subscription fees, just basic radio but over Wifi and not radio frequencies. What I see in the next 10 years is a wireless city. Basically, because of the low cost of the Internet Protocol, we can make the definate switch to IP. This is what we will have, hopefully:

1. Voice over IP for Cell phones - Pay one amount per month regardless of the amount of minutes you use, just like we have now for for cell phones.
2..IPRadio - listen to any station on the planet without paying any subscription fees. Plus, because it uses the internet to get the station content, other information can be delivered.
3. IPTV - You can have a mini LCD TV and via wireless, you can watch any channel, HBO and no Cable Tuner card is needed.

I have been thinking about this for a few days now and wanted to share it with the community. Your comments are welcome.

Isn't this very similar to Internet radio? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Something like this?
http://www.ccrane.com/radios/internet-radi...rnet-radio.aspx

Man, didnt even know they had that. Kinda expensive though.

Wait a little and China will flood the market... "Wal-Mart"

Extremely expensive for a radio...

Cheaper Internet Radio - Mini ITX + Some good speakers!

The only problem is bandwidth, not at the user download end but at the radio station end

If they have 100 users all listening to a 128kb/s stream they need 12,800kb/s upstream

Now imagine a big radio station with 2 million listeners at once...at 128kb/s = 256GB/s upload bandwidth

Which is why FM is very good in the sense that its sent to everyone on a carrier wave and you can then tune your reciever to pick up any number of stations wheras IPRadio could pose serious issues for larger radio stations

But anyway I hope it does take off im all for the open source/free media/free software movement

You raise a good point. But bandwidth may not be too much of an issue if torrent technology is utilized where the radio is self is used to transmit the same stream to other listeners. Of course a delay may occur.

Hmm I see where your coming from but then you would be at the mercy of all other users bandwidth which may be greater but parts could quite easily go missing if a number of peers goes offline or think of the easy way to inject new data into the audio stream!

I think IPRadio is a good idea and its been proved, just go to Radio in iTunes to listen to loads of great stations but at the end of the day FM beats it in terms of quality as long as you get a good FM Tuner (high Q factor)

I thought about that, users who "relay" the streeam being able to manipulate the data and change the signal being transmitted. But can that be done with BitTorrent now? Can I be downloading something, and upload a different thing? I dont think you can, or am I wrong? Unless of course you are only uploading. Maybe some type of authentication can be put in place? Or have the packets contain the originating IP address in the header and only play it if it comes from that IP?

IPTv will suffer the same fate. Probably even worst cause you are streaming video and not just audio. I guess that is where Fiber will come into play, but even though, Fiber has its physical bandwidth limitations.

One more thing, not many people out there have high bandwidth broadband at their disposals. Even if they have, majority of ISPs worldwide still limit the bandwidth. This causes streaming video to be almost unviewable.