←
→

Friday, January 20, 2006

WiFiFON and 3G

At PTC there was a plenary panel with the director of Marketing for Qualcomm, his name was...let me find his business card...Jeffrey K. Belk, SVP Marketing. Jeffrey made some very good points about how WiMax is over hyped. He wrote a really interesting whitepaper on WiMax/WiFi and 3G. I only read through it very quickly (it was written by a marketing guy after all) but the gist is that WiFi / WiMax isn't going to replace 3G networks.

He is right. Maybe when WiMax is REALLY ready in 3 years or so we can talk about the likelihood 3G being replaced but we are a long ways from that point. WiFi is a hotspot technology. You have to go to a spot to use it, while 3G networks have a lot more coverage. But that doesn't mean WiFi is irrelevant to the cellular business. WiFi is cheap. 3G is great for reach but bad for throughput and cost. WiFi is poor for reach but great for throughput and cost. The two will co-exist. When WiMax is ready FON will use that, but right now I am really excited about 802.11N and its expanded coverage ability. We will see it in stores mid 2006. I hope the first FON routers will be 802.11N but that remains to be seen…

3G is not going to replace WiFi, even though Verizon, god bless their heart, is advertising on the back of every major business magazine that WiFi is crap. I don't blame them (it was written by a marketing person). After the session I told Jeffery Belk that FON believes, when given the option users will prefer to make a cheap call over a WiFi network rather then traditional cell networks. Even if that means standing still for a few minutes (it’s rude to talk while walking anyway). He told me I was crazy! He said, "no one will ever want to make phone calls over a WiFi network" when given a choice. My response "I think you're wrong, and hopefully FON will prove it."

Jeffery may have been right about WiMax hype but he is dead wrong about WiFiFON's. Lets see what the nice people at eTel will have to say.

 

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL to this entry:
http://web.fon.com/backend_blogs/mt-tb.cgi/87


Comments | Write your comment



Write your comment




Remember Me?:


Verification:



Recent posts