Carriers may be encouraged to offer duel-technology by being able to offer their customers greater coverage. People tend to think that carriers will balk at offering handsets with Wi-Fi access because people will use them to make cheap calls with VoIP, but this article suggest the carriers will promote the phones for precisely that purpose. If a building has deadspots for mobile coverage, it’s far easier and cheaper for a mobile carrier to get the business in the building by putting in a Wi-Fi point than a mobile base station, and it could mean more customers for the carrier.
British telco BT has launched such a service for home users in conjunction with Vodafone. The handset has a bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection to an access point in the home, and uses that when the user is within range and Vodafone’s mobile network when the user is not.
“BT is pumping the benefits of the service as improving home mobile reception, and the ability to get “landline rates at home” from a mobile device. The first one is a no-brainer, but check the fine print on those cheap rates: the only calls not charged at the prevailing mobile rate are calls to UK landlines. Sure, better reception at home is great. But users are expected to pay 10 pounds a month — on top of BT broadband and landline charges — for very little benefit over their standard landline?”
This affects mobile content producers because Wi-Fi enabled phones will provide a lot more opportunities for content producers to provide compelling content…but the carriers need to be on board.
Related stories:
–MVNOs To Promote Wi-Fi Roaming Phones
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