Think about it – storage device, radio running wireless protocol, and a small processor.

That description fits a smartphone as well. Assuming this software was installed on any device which could utilize it, the mesh network is already fully covering, in most cities.

The software can be installed to anything with storage and a wifi connection. In short, any smartphone can become part of the network.

Basically, these devices generate an ad hoc internet.

Normally, the way the internets work is routers talk to one another, transmitting data packages from any point A to any point B. Usually this goes by the following route:

Computer–>Wireless Router–>ISP Router–>ISP 2 router–>etc, etc,–>Goal

This path changes depending on which in-between stations are easiest to travel through, much like you’d choose to avoid road congestion in ordinary traffic by picking alternate routes. (for an example of this, pull up the command line interface on your computer and run tracert http://www.google.com. You will see the path your computer currently takes in order to contact the google search page.

In the case of the “pirate box” what happens is that a similar ad hoc network is generated, just that every in-between station is a wireless router. If any of these in-betweens has a connection through an ISP as well, the network formed can become international/intercontinental.

This is usually described as a mesh network.

You aren’t “offline” as such. You are just relying on being in range of any node point of a network generated by a thousand switched-on wireless routers attached to hard drives.

The really interesting point here is that the software wil work on anything with a wifi router/radio. This includes laptops, numerous raspberry pi’s with wifi adapters…and of course, any type of smartphone.