GSM-WiFi

GSM-WiFi
According to NetCentrex, ISPs show interest in phones, but first to roll out dual WiFi-GSM phones could be incumbents with mobile operations. Mass deployment will take another 6-12 months before dual-mode GSM-WiFi phones are deployed. With PDAs and notebooks becoming more and more prevalent, and phone vendors integrating WiFi inside GSM phones, incumbents with mobile operations have no choice but to follow the trend. GSM provides ubiquity, while WiFi provides speed and low prices. More than 25 dual-mode devices are already available (HP, Motorola, ...), and this number will grow as demand grows.

ISPs and LECs are necessarily interested in as it is a way to sell more broadband access, increase traffic and grab a (small) portion of the mobile market. For mobile operators, it is a way to maintain customer loyalty, punctually add new services and complementary offerings, add new revenues, but also unlikely to cut some revenues in WiFi areas (i.e. difference between GSM and WiFi voice tariffs). For them, the cost of not adding WiFi services could be more damageable than rolling out the service, by loosing customers to competition. The competitive advantage for fixed incumbents is not clear if their strategy is to stay a fixed-only operator. But is this strategy sustainable? As fixed-mobile convergence is taking off, as well as triple and quadruple play packages, more and more fixed incumbents will be obliged to follow the trend in order to retain customers and traffic. BT is a good example: being global for years, then just a fixed operator for a while and now adding MVNO services (with Vodafone) and WiFi hotspots. Cable operators are also candidates for adding cellular services (i.e. through MVNO deals) and wireless broadband services.