SBC CTO Talks About WiFi, Bundling, And VoWiFi

We've been saying for a while that telcos need to bundle products and services from the fixed divisions and wireless divisions to survive in the competitive environment that is building in the US. Yesterday, SBC CTO Ross Ireland discussed how WiFi fits into SBC's plans. Some interesting (but hardly new) ideas he spun out are: WiFi bundled with DSL, voice over WiFi phones, and combinations of WiFi and cellular radios that would use SBC for WiFi and DSL, and Cingular for Wide Area coverage. He argues that SBC's GPRS/EDGE-WiFi solution will be more compelling than a Verizon EV-DO-WiFi offer, and although we love WiFi-WAN combo ideas, we have doubts regarding EDGE beating EV-DO. Of course, that's where the bundling comes in: if they can bundle service in conjunction with home DSL, then SBC's superior numbers of fixed lines can be a asset in winning the mobile battle. We like what Ross said regarding WiFi being a mostly wired technology, just unwired for the last 150ft. However, Ross' promise of 20,000 SBC hotspots built by 2006 smacks of the same kind of overestimate we've learned to discount. What is it with the number 20,000 that seems to fascinate hotspot promoters?

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