Kineto Wireless CEO Jeff Brown took a few minutes to comment about AT&T's announcement yesterday that the company has created a new tiered data-pricing structure for subscribers. The move is making waves in the industry.
Jeff talks about the changing role of Wi-Fi to mobile operators, evidenced by this and last week's announcement that AT&T is launching a free public Wi-Fi trial in Times Square, New York.
He touches on how Smart Wi-Fi could be the next step for operators to maximize the use of Wi-Fi for network offload.
Jeff says he thinks we'll see more and more operators moving to Wi-Fi to give users a really good experience, whether they're on the 3G network or the Wi-Fi network, which should be transparent to the user.
1 comment:
Given the existence of tiered data plans, the difference can't be transparent as the wifi data should be unmetered.
It will also affect app makers. For example if using Google maps I'd want it to download all the necessary data for a trip while at home connected to my personal wifi network and then only use cellular data if I end up really off the beaten track and to keep usage low in that case.
AT&T are being especially stupid. The moment you ration things or force people to consider usage then they cut back. Encouraging people to use your service less may be worthwhile in the short term, but in the long term it is a remarkably stupid business plan. You want people dependent on your service and using it as much as possible, rather than looking for free alternatives.
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