Time For The 3G Hotspot?
For all the talk wondering if 3G or WiFi were competitive or complementary, I’ve never heard of anyone suggest the concept of a “3G hotspot”. However, In Motion Technology has now launched just such a 3G hotspot. It’s a mobile gateway designed to be used in vehicles. It connects to a 3G cellular network, but lets passengers in the car connect to it via WiFi. So, basically, it’s WiFi for the local connection, and then 3G cellular for the backhaul. The target for this product is clearly businesses that have fleets of vehicles they manage, but it certainly could open up some other possibilities as well. What’s most interesting to me about this is it takes away the whole issue of having the system decide which network is better to connect to – 3G or WiFi. Instead, you’re always using WiFi off the device, and 3G to the network. Their website includes some indication that they use some “accelerator” system to speed up delivery over the 3G network, but I can’t find any details.
Filed Under: 3g
