PCPro: “Ericsson predicts swift end for Wi-Fi hotspots”
Ericsson predicts:
“The rapid growth of mobile broadband is set to make Wi-Fi hotspots irrelevant. Hotspots at places like Starbucks are becoming the telephone boxes of the broadband era,” claimed Ericsson’s chief marketing officer Johan Bergendahl, speaking to delegates at the European Computer Audit, Control and Security Conference in Stockholm.
Bold prediction. But it is a marketing executive after all. But I’m not dissing him at all. For my mobile needs, and while we’re building out the Australian wide free wireless network, I have a Vodafone 3G modem which is A$39 for 5Gb. Imaging this becoming 10-20Gb in a considerable time. I’d need a portable, battery-powered router though, which connects my iPod, and my PSP, and my eeePC, and… to my mobile broadband modem. We can look forward to a free mobile wireless (3G-4G) network, where I take my broadband connection with me around town. I would become a walking node in a city-wide mesh network. My home neighbors wouldn’t be too happy (when I’m away, they can’t connect to my internet connection), but I’d make lots of friends around town. Or rather stalkers…
On a side note, Ericsson also won a Vodafone contract to deliver HSPA hardware and software for an upgrade of its 3G network in Australia, fully implemented by the end of the year.
While I was writing this post I remembered reading about mesh networking phones, but couldn’t remember the name of the company. It magically popped up on the Facebook group: TerraNet, and a BBC article from last year.