Wi-Fi First, Project Salsa, And How Carriers Are Using Wi-Fi - Wi-Fi Now Episode 4

Is Wi-Fi First the access model of the future? David Morken, CEO of Bandwidth (Republic Wireless) realized back in 2011 that Wi-Fi was everywhere already – and decided to launch Republic Wireless, the original Wi-Fi First service provider.

Today, Republic Wireless customers pay an average of $14.78 per month for their mobile plans – way lower than the $100 or more that most US consumers pay to the big carriers. Developing the technology to support Wi-Fi calling and cellular-to-Wi-Fi two-way handoffs has been an incremental process, says David. But it’s getting better all the time.

Fredrik Jungermann of Tefficient has studied how carriers across the world are using Wi-Fi to boost their business. One observation is this: Offering Wi-Fi in whatever form and simply using the word ‘Wi-Fi’ tends to produce retention value. Consumers like it – it’s that popular. Fredrik brings up a couple of great cases including Singtel of Singapore. They’re actually charging a (small) premium for a bundle that includes Wi-Fi. And there’s strong evidence that Telenet (Belgium) subscribers actually offload a lot of traffic to community Wi-Fi or ‘homespots’.

Finally: David Morken & I hatch a plan to introduce WiFi-L: Wi-Fi in the licensed bands! We’ve not told Verizon yet, though. Join us next week for the low-down on ‘LTE/Wi-Fi Aggregation’ (LWA) with Qualcomm – and we’ll pick apart what Google Project Fi is doing with the help of Nicholas Armstrong of Pravala.

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