Does Wi-Fi First herald the final curtain for mobile operators?

Posted on November 11, 2014

Rivalry makes for a far better narrative than co-operation, as the plots of countless literary works illustrate. What’s interesting, though, is that many of the great tales of conflict end in reconciliation; usually when both sides have learnt the folly of that conflict to their cost. The story of Wi-Fi and cellular might lack the literary clout of, say, Romeo and Juliet, but that tension between competition and conciliation is present nonetheless. I was struck by this as I read a very interesting story on CNN suggesting that end users might soon be able to do without cellular service thanks to the enormous growth in Wi-Fi. http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/07/technology/mobile/wifi-mobile-carrier/ Just as Shakespeare’s famous play would be a lot less famous if the Montagues and Capulets had sorted out their differences at the beginning rather than the end, so a story that threatens calamity for one party or another stands a greater chance of exposure than one which heralds collaboration. It’s a provocative headline, and perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek. The reality is that the tale of conflict between Wi-Fi and cellular is all but over; the industry realizes that both are necessary, both can thrive and both can win. What’s important is to…

Hot-Spot the difference: Public Wi-Fi vs Club Wi-Fi

Posted on November 10, 2014

Recently Maravedis Rethink issued a report predicting huge growth in public Wi-Fi. The research forecast the availability of 47.7 million public Wi-Fi hotspots by the end of this year, growing to 340 million by the end of 2018. That is exciting and underscores the increasingly ubiquitous nature of Wi-Fi and its established position as a key network for consumers and service providers. Interestingly, most of this Wi-Fi – almost 40 million of the 2014 year-end total, in fact – is community Wi-Fi, which at Devicescape we refer to as “club Wi-Fi.”  Broadband providers deliver it by making a small but important change to the capabilities of the routers and modems their customers use in the home. Instead of the routers being purely for private use, the software is modified so that a portion of the bandwidth can be accessed by any of their other customers. Since there are millions of domestic customers using these routers, a large network can be built pretty quickly. And, if you can somehow link all of these disparate Wi-Fi networks from different service providers together, you can create get a single, over-arching network, which allows roaming for anyone in the club. Sounds great! Here are a few…