Ericsson sounds the death knell for Wi-Fi hotspots

[#1]

Over at PC Pro: "The rapid growth of mobile broadband is set to make Wi-Fi hotspots irrelevant, according to an Ericsson executive." "Hotspots at places like Starbucks are becoming the telephone boxes of the broadband era," claimed Ericsson's chief marketing officer Johan Bergendahl, speaking to delegates at the European Computer Audit, Control and Security Conference in Stockholm." more @ PC Pro

[#2]

Interesting. My mobile, (N95) has obviously mobile connectivity and built in WiFi. What I haven't worked out yet is which is better? Which is faster in real terms, and more importantly imho, which is better for battery life!

[#3]

Mobile broadband is indeed improving but so is Wifi. As long as Wifi maintains its 10x+ speed advantage hotspots have nothing to fear.

[#4]

From a Mobile VoIP perspective: I would say that this wont be the case for at least another 3 years. Theres a number of choices currently avaialble when trying to make VoIP calls on the move: 1. You take your laptop and use some SIP software/headset to make calls 2. Use some software like Fring to connect to your SIP account via the Hotspot 3. Use a Betamax clones service which maps a geographic number to your SIP destination (usually for international calls) - see http://www.lowratevoip.com/ for instance 4. Create an account with a true mobile VoIP operator such as Truphone and make calls from your mobile using specialist software to instigate the call over the mobile VoIP account. After attending a workshop on Mobile VoIP the other day it was clear that Telcos and Mobile VoIP providers (or MVNOs) dont get on. They're pulling in completely different directions - T-Mobile (for instance) have no incentive to increase their data transfer allowance – 90% of their customer base is PAYG and the 5% that want to use advanced SIP software are prepared to pay through the roof for it 'at the moment'. The UK market is active in removing/restricting bandwidth intensive apps from mobiles - this requires regulatory intervention to bring the UK inline with the rest of the EU and US but for the time being Telcos will never encourage use of a service which cuts into their core call revenue stream unless they have to. MVNOs are working hard to develop better handset chipsets that dont drain your battery when you try and make a VoIP call (at the moment you'd be lucky to get a 30 minute call), access point interoperability and seamless handover of VoIP calls between access points. Until these items are more resilient I cant see Mobile VoIP fully catching on.

[#5]

Obvioulsy another executive that dones't live in a semi-rural area in the UK.....as there's no 3G (mobile broadband) at all where I live, not one of the UK mobile providers offers anything other than the standard voice/GPRS system. I'm not in an totally isolated rural area either (smallish town in Lancashire) but the mobile networks wont invest in 3G in rural areas so there's no change at all that 3G (mobile boradband) will over-take WiFi in areas like where live. My only change is using a WiFi hotspot which are thankfully starting to spring up in areas like mine. People who write articles like this really should get in their car are drive out of the bigger cities to get see the bigger picture. 3G also sucks the life out of mobile batteries.

[#6]

Does anyone know which is better for batteries? WiFi or 3G?