Wi-Fi Rides HighWi-Fi Rides High

Wi-Fi/cellular capabilities have been around for years, but with Cablevision potentially targeting the market, maybe the pieces are starting to come together.

Mobile capability is key to UC, but cellular telephone service in the U.S. is essentially an oligopoly controlled by the four national providers--Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. The club had threatened to grow smaller, but AT&T was forced to abandon its plan to acquire T-Mobile this past December in the face of deep opposition from the Department of Justice.

While users have longed for a wider range of wireless alternatives, the costs involved in acquiring radio spectrum and building a nationwide wireless network are daunting. Our last hope came by way of the Sprint-Clearwire WiMax network, but it now appears that they, too, will fall in line with the rest of the industry and adopt LTE.

However there is another wireless alternative, and it's starting to get some serious attention: Wi-Fi. I wrote about one Wi-Fi based option late last year from a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) called Republic Wireless. Republic was offering unlimited mobile voice, text and data service for a flat $19 per month with no contract.

Republic was going to do this by using a combination of Sprint’s CDMA network and free Wi-Fi hot spots, a combination it calls "Hybrid Calling." When the phone comes within range of an accessible Wi-Fi network, it automatically grabs the cheaper option.

There were some gotchas with Republic's offering. First, while it had integrated smartphone software that made the calling process similar to traditional cellular, that software was available on only one handset--the LG Optimus, running Android 2.3. The other problem is that the handoff between Wi-Fi and the cellular network is apparently clunky, so if you are on a Wi-Fi call, it's advisable to stay where you are. Wi-Fi-to-cellular handoff in an arrangement like this is challenging, as the network has to set up a cellular connection, and that set-up procedure can easily take 10-15 seconds.

Now there's a new twist on the story. Long Island-based cable operator Cablevision has just filed for a patent for a new Wi-Fi/cellular handoff technology. This is fairly significant because Cablevision operates a Wi-Fi hot spot network that covers much of its service territory; the service is called Optimum Wi-Fi and is offered for free to any of Cablevision’s cable modem customers (including me). In contrast, Republic’s idea was to get a free ride on Wi-Fi hot spots; it didn't plan on building any Wi-Fi infrastructure.

We have seen this type of capability before from companies like Agito Networks (now part of ShoreTel), Varaha, and Comdasys. In a somewhat cryptically-worded patent application, Cablevision says, "What is needed therefore are systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products to enable handover logic that is cost efficient. The logic should enable handover from a first network to a second network, such that the handover logic makes the most economical use of the first network before the handover is initiated...."

While the small guys have been marketing the dual-mode approach to enterprise customers, Cablevision would likely be targeting the cellular market--at least within its service territory--as a whole. What's more, Cablevision has a heavy-duty marketing budget and is known throughout the cable industry for being first to market with new technologies.

This could be big news for UC users, as Wi-Fi still delivers far higher data rates than any of the 4G options on the table, a fact Cablevision routinely points out in its TV ads for Optimum Wi-Fi. However, while Cablevision’s coverage is not ubiquitous like cellular, the combination of its networks plus the customers' home Wi-Fi networks should make this option available more often than not.

Wi-Fi/cellular capabilities have been around for years, but maybe the pieces are starting to come together. Virtually all smartphones sold today are Wi-Fi capable, so if the software can be integrated as well as Republic Wireless' appears to be, and if the handoff can be optimized, Cablevision’s marketing muscle might finally position Wi-Fi as a serious option to cellular.

I'm going to be hosting the Summit on What’s Next For the Mobile Enterprise with Eric Krapf at Enterprise Connect next month, and I certainly plan to be asking the carrier representatives how Wi-Fi is fitting into their world view.