Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Bumbling, Stumbling, Barry West Does It Again- "Barry West said Wi-Fi phones could prove to be key to stealing away more business from local wireline"

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 02:36:05 -0500

Bumbling, Stumbling, Barry west Does It Again-
Wi-Fi phones lack carrier support
Service providers worry about cannibalizing revenue
By Ben Charny

Updated: 04:32 PM PT  Feb. 23, 2004
On Monday, Nokia said its Communicator 9500, due at year's end, will be
able to use Cisco Aironet access points usually found in corporations
and hotels, as well as in executive lounges in airports and train
stations. The world's largest handset maker joins Motorola, which is
building a cell phone that uses Wi-Fi chips from Texas Instruments.

Wi-Fi phone
proponents say the
phones combine two
complementary
wireless
technologies. Wi-Fi
is fast, but has only
a 300-foot range
and can be used for
downloading large
amounts of
information.
Meanwhile, cellular
networks stretch for
hundreds of miles
but can usually only manage download speeds of about 50kbps (kilobits
per second) to 500kbps.

But Wi-Fi phones are missing crucial supporters: the wireless carriers
that sell the phones.

Deutsche Bank Securities analyst Brian Modoff said carriers face
challenges in switching between the two different wireless networks and
properly handling the complex billing. While handset makers predict an
early 2005 launch of the technology, Modoff and others expect it will
take longer for these devices to get the full backing of carriers.

"I cannot imagine the number of quality-of-service issues that would
come from trying to do wireless local area network handoffs," Modoff
said. "Who's responsible? How do you bill? What is the wireless local
area network pricing?"

But he also believes some carriers will inevitably jump in. "The
carriers feel that they must be at the front end of whatever tech
happens to be hot," he added.
Some carriers are already warming up to the technology. In a recent
speech to analysts, Nextel Communications Chief Technology Officer Barry
West said Wi-Fi phones could prove to be key to stealing away more
business from local wireline phone companies. Meanwhile, Japanese cell
phone service provider NTT DoCoMo has developed a test version of a
Wi-Fi phone that's meant for a high-speed wireless network.

Wi-Fi phones armed with the appropriate software could ultimately use a
home's Wi-Fi access point to make phone calls using the Internet,
technology known as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).  That lets them
accomplish something that cell phone service providers have been trying
to do for years: replace the local landline phone company.

"I see an opportunity to attack the regional Bell operating companies,"
West said.
VoIP calls over a home broadband connection can be made for free or at
prices that are sometimes half of what it costs to make a cell phone
call. So why would a cell phone service provider want to sell or host
such a service that has the potential to eat into more of its own
revenue?
"Cannibalism in this business is inevitable," West said.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4355339/
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