Wi-Fi Offloading Would Create Relief of Demand for LTE, iGR Says
Wi-Fi offloading would help relieve LTE networks and add value for consumers, Iain Gillott, founder of iGR, said in a webinar Thursday about Wi-Fi offloading. The webinar was sponsored by iGR, a market strategy consultancy focused on the wireless and…
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mobile communications industry. Wireless companies such as AT&T have set up Wi-Fi hot spots in congested metropolitan areas as a way to ease the network traffic, and Gillott said those hot spots can be helpful, but in metro areas like New York City they're not the most effective. Other weaknesses for using Wi-Fi offloading are that older networks lack security and others have cumbersome log-ins, he said. There's also no handoff between Wi-Fi and 3G or 4G, Gillott said, and Wi-Fi roaming isn't as seamless as cellular. Despite those downsides to wireless companies offering Wi-Fi offloading for its customers, some strengths may be hard for those companies to ignore, he said. The network gets larger when the wireless companies have Wi-Fi hot spots everywhere, which can help with marketing, Gillott said. Wi-Fi offloading is also inexpensive to deploy and supports stationary traffic, he said. A big plus for consumers and wireless providers alike is that the free Wi-Fi usage helps customers stay under their data limits, Gillott said.