Subject: [NEXTEL-1] We've Been Down This Road Before....

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 01 Jan 2003 22:04:47 -0500

-------- Original Message --------
From: "Timothy V. Peters" <[email-masked]>
Subject: We've Been Down This Road Before....

I've been reading all over the IT and Communications trade press about
how Wi-Fi hotspots are gonna be the cause of signficant grief for the
roll-out of 3G networks and other related services, and this has
motivated me to step up onto the public soapbox.

I think those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it.

Can you say "CT2"?  Anyone remember "phonepoints"?

CT2 technology was going to make PCS rollouts infeasible because CT2 was
so cheap to use.  Well, it seems that everyone forgot about _mobility_,
which is kinda the reason for bothering with the technology in the first
place.  802.11b hotspots have the exact same limitations of the CT2
technology, which is that it's a drag to be tethered to the limits of
the hotspot or service point.  Even the most ambitious plans for the
rollout of 20,000 access points will make only the tiniest drop in the
bucket in terms of increasing the ubiquity of hotspots.

I think in five years, we'll all be laughing about thinking that
hotspots were going to shake the foundations of the mobile industry.
Don't get me wrong -- I think hotspots are a great thing in logical
places like airports, hotels and even Starbucks.  Real mobile, though,
it ain't.  Especially with the VERY limited spectrum available for it --
but that's a whole 'nother diatribe that I'm not motivated enough to
write about today.

<Pundit mode off>

Hey, Andy:  What's a real, card-carrying industry observer have to say
about this?

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