WSJ.com - Race to Link Wi-Fi, Cellphones Picks Up Speed

WSJ.com - Race to Link Wi-Fi, Cellphones Picks Up Speed "Imagine walking to work while talking on your cellphone. Out on the street, you're using a cellular network and paying your mobile provider for each minute you gab. But once you reach the office, your cellphone detects a signal from your company's wireless Internet, or Wi-Fi, transmitter and automatically switches you from the cellular network to the Wi-Fi one. Your call is now being routed over the Internet, saving money on cellphone fees. You're also able to browse the Web on your cellphone at superfast broadband speeds.
Such technology -- under development in Japan and elsewhere -- stands to revolutionize telecommunications on two levels. For the consumer, the technology combines the convenience of cellular access with the low cost and high speeds of Wi-Fi, all in a single device. For the industry as a whole, this technology illustrates a new but increasingly common theme: how the convergence of once-discrete technologies -- in this case, mobile-phone service and the Internet – is pitting unlikely rivals against each other in a battle for chunks of a brand-new territory."

Another example of virtualized devices and a value shift from hardware to software.

BTW, if you don't create an uber-presence profile when using this type of device, your life will eventually become a constant stream of always-on (mostly poor signal-to-noise ratio) interruptions...