Automatic Wi-Fi roam, signup and billing via SIM card to be tested Thirty-seven communications companies around the world have signed up to trial Hotspot 2 Wi-Fi roaming – and billing – using commercially available routers later this year, it has been announced. Hotspot 2 tech allows a mobile handset (or tablet, or ereader) to automatically detect, connect to and register with a Wi-Fi base …
this just seems like UMA (if the router is compatible your phone uses the wifi connection as an access point to Home Cell network in the UK case only network that uses UMA is Orange, Why 3UK Never Implemented UMA who knows as they need it more then any other network), surprises me why all network Operators do not use UMA as it fills in so many dead spots that all networks have all you need is an wifi connection (that's compatible Norm any None N router is fine, as i find it never works on my phone and 3 other Android phones i have played with that are on orange)
but with Hotspot 2 that seems to now auto connects on its own if it finds an compatible hotspot2 wifi AP and starts an UMA connection over it but bit more complicated then UMA , I just hope they make it for Any network
other posters on here this is mostly for users with No signal or to offload Cell load onto an wifi connection
I have found that running two radios instead of one generally results in poor battery life on my mobile device. I only ever switch on its WiFi radio if the 3G data signal is too pants to use, or I need to do a large download.
For me,
WiFi ON, battery = 1 day
WiFi OFF, battery = 3 days
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We need more FON hot spots, not commercial hot spots authenticated by SIMs...
Router manufacturers need to start sticking FON on them as standard, then 'sell' the feature to broadband providers! If all routers supported FON, then all broadband subscribers would be able to connect to any FON spot!
You don't open 'your' wireless to the world. You donate* a portion of 'your' bandwidth to passers by and fence their portion off from 'your' bandwidth.
*in return others donate bandwidth to you, so there's no need to feel hard done by unless you're a troll who never travels with wi-fi gadgets. If they use their portion for illegal purposes, they can be traced.
Paris understands give and take.
I think everyone's got the wrong basic assumption. If you assume this "feature" is to make users' lives better then of course it's confusing since there are lots of problems as mentioned in these comments.
However, this feature is not for users, it's for mobile operators. They've long wanted to offload their data traffic onto WiFi to conserve spectrum. However, they needed a way to charge for it! If you want to manually look for free hotspots or get a Boingo subscription, etc. then you can do that now. The mobile operators are hoping that if they make it "automated" then they can have the best of both worlds and still keep your money.
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