WiFi phones ready for prime time

Although old news to tech savvy early adopters, the consumers with the latest gadgets, it is becoming increasingly clear that WiFi phones have not only arrived but, thanks to bold moves by manufacturers, are ready for prime time. So what exactly is prime time and moreover, why should you care?



In a nutshell, prime time is when the true power of a connectivity technology is not only made available but readily usable. A connectivity technology is usable when there are no restrictions placed on its use to protect the interests of phone service providers (e.g. Vodacom, MTN, Cell-C). The traditional main interest of phone service providers is naturally voice revenue, and since one can make phone calls via private WiFi networks, this revenue stream is no longer as protected as it used to be. Phone service providers might have tried to use their influence on phone manufacturers to restrict the use of WiFi to data applications only. This has not happened. The fact that you have the power to use your mobile phone to make calls on a WiFi network, such as the one you might find in your home, corporation or hotspot, is why you should care. You have the freedom to do whatever you want to do with your device. Thats right, freedom, think Braveheart. If that was too technical an explanation, just remember this, you can make much cheaper phone calls from your cell phone.

While WiFi phones are ready for prime time, current models are "tailored for business", i.e. expensive. WiFi is generally being offered on smartphones, these are phones that come with their own operating system such as Windows or Symbian, essentially micro-PCs. With WiFi phones being expensive they are out of reach for the average consumer, however once the target market moves from the business user to the main stream consumer one may see call prices dropping significantly as phone service providers respond to their revenue stream being increasingly threatened.

Bring in the professionals

Anybody that is responsible for a patch of grass, from the tiniest of patches, to the sprawling greens of a hotel, will know that they have two options: do-it-yourself (buy a lawn-mower and start greasing those elbows) OR get a gardening service to do it for you. Each approach has its benefits and the choice taken ultimately depends on what you want to spend your time on, your core business or sweating it out in the little spare time you have. This analogy applies to hotspots, you can get a professional service provider to do it for you or you can do it yourself. In this post we investigate both options.

The first option, getting a professional service provider in to take care of your hotspot service provisioning, has obvious benefits. To start off with, if you thought getting out the manual to programme your VCR or television was painfull, getting to grips with the innards of Internet is no easier. The service provider should know all the gory details and moreover know how to keep the service operational reliably. This reliability comes from knowing which bandwidth technologies (e.g. ADSL, iBurst, 3G) and bandwidth suppliers to use in which areas. It also comes from having adequate network monitoring technologies in place so that they know when things go wrong before you do. Naturally professional expertise does not normally come free of charge, however in the long run you are likely to save money if you select the appropriate professionals. Finding the right company may require some effort, but it is likely to be less than time spent becoming the proverbial techie.

The second option, the do-it-yourself option, is one which you could consider and with enough time probably will accomplish. It would be difficult to match the breadth of expertise of the professional, but you could get your hotspot up and running. The problem comes in when things go wrong, and they will. These problems can be as simple as someone pulling the plug on the hotspot equipment while you are on holiday (and unable to do anything about it) or as complex as faults in the hotspot software itself. Another problem would come in when you start calculating how much it costs you to run the hotspot and how much you are actually getting out of it (we'll address this topic in a future post).

Ultimately we believe that the do-it-yourself option is not the best route unless you have the time and patience to spent a significant amount of time on it. The same goes for mowing the lawn, you may be better off getting the professionals in. Knowing that mowing the lawn is technologically a simpler exercise and not a 24/7 operation, as a hotspot is, should be further reason to bring in the professionals.