Tuesday, March 22, 2011

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » AT&T needs T-Mobile most for its WiFi - Cringely on technology

Check the full post for more Cringely analysis

If hotspots and cells have comparable backhaul capability and I’m told many of them do, then T-Mobile has more than four times the broadband capability through WiFi than it has through the cell network. And remember that an urban cell can easily cover a square mile (640 acres) or more while hotspot rarely covers more than an acre, making the effective data density many times higher.

Now add to this the WiFi capability in our homes, which T-Mobile already has software to leverage — software that you can bet will be shortly used by AT&T as well.  Clever use of other people’s bandwidth can add an order of magnitude to AT&T’s connectivity and backhaul for no marginal price at all.  Suddenly the network expands, coverage gaps go away, yet backhaul bandwidth actually drops.  Look for it.

I, Cringely » Blog Archive » AT&T needs T-Mobile most for its WiFi - Cringely on technology

No comments: