Texas Instruments joins Broadcom, Atheros, and Philips in announcing a wi-fi chip aimed at the cellphone market. TI's chip will support 802.11a and g in addition to the older (and most widely deployed) b variant. Looks like we will definitely be seeing combo cellular / wi-fi mobile phones next year.
But it's hard for me to understand why telco's would offer such a product. Seems to me like it will be the beginning of the end for them. Do they figure they'll get the backhaul business? Are they just scared that the competition will offer this and steal their business? Do they really want to give us something cool? (Yeah, I don't believe that last one either.)
Maybe they'll incorporate wifi but still charge you minutes for using it? They could have the phones "call home" and report on your wifi usage. But that would be insane...
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But it's hard for me to understand why telco's would offer such a product. Seems to me like it will be the beginning of the end for them. Do they figure they'll get the backhaul business? Are they just scared that the competition will offer this and steal their business? Do they really want to give us something cool? (Yeah, I don't believe that last one either.)
Maybe they'll incorporate wifi but still charge you minutes for using it? They could have the phones "call home" and report on your wifi usage. But that would be insane...
- jim 9-18-2003 9:35 pm