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AT&T ups Wi-Fi ante with Wayport acquisition

Jason

For those of us traveling abroad, it could save on horrendous data charges 

Posted Friday 7th November 2008 15:54 GMT

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When abroad Data roaming can be REALLY expensive over 3G (a global 250 plan on AT&T is $250 a month!).

Connect your cell to a hotspot and tether it to access the Internet over WiFi? Much cheaper!

Anonymous Coward

OH BUM!!!... 

Posted Friday 7th November 2008 15:54 GMT

Flame

I'm Gonna Need A BIGGER JAMMER.....

and lots of shares in a certain russian Alu Smelting firm....

Anonymous Coward

Cost of delivering bits on Wifi vs cost on 3G 

Posted Friday 7th November 2008 16:42 GMT

3G Data is _EXPENSIVE_.

Operators are selling it at up to 10 times under cost (more in Europe) to fill up unused capacity with the prices based on cost of backhaul dropping by a factor of more than 10 times in the next 3 years due to "technological advances". However, looking at the tech roadmap for backhaul the chances of this happening is roughly equivalent to seeing lucifer driving a snowplough to work.

The price differential between it and wifi is probably around 50+ times per bit.

Add to that the fact that Apple iPhone defaults to WiFi when available and ATT has a valueable tool to cut its costs compared to EU operators. They will be idiots not to use it.