How Does Meshtastic Compare to Existing Technologies?

• Meshtastic is much more automated than APRS, which was developed in the late 1980s.

• Meshtastic does NOT require a license to operate. Amateur radio APRS requires a license.

• APRS networks can become quickly congested with 100 or more users, whereas Meshtastic has specific programming to prevent overload, even in environments of several thousands of users.

• Packet radio is command line. Meshtastic has multiple user interfaces on IOS and Android.

• Packet radio requires the user to know the path from them to the intended recipient of a message. Meshtastic selects the path automatically and adjusts when nodes disappear for various reasons.

• Meshtastic can carry roughly 40x more traffic than amateur radio voice messages on a single frequency. Plus the messages are kept for future reference.

• Packet radio and APRS have dozens of software packages developed over the past 30 years, some of which run on DOS, older versions of Windows, older versions of Linux. Meshtastic runs on the IOS and Android platforms, plus has a web interface that can run on ANY browser.