August 24, 2005

Merging Traffic: Cell Phones and WiFi Phones

I have in front of me a WiFi phone from Zyxel that uses WiFi to place telephone calls. Eventually, as USA Today writes today, we'll see a blend of WiFi and Cellular based telephones. For businesses and consumers the savings in corporate resources and hard dollars will be tremendous.

USA Today writes Over the next few years, companies will start selling dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi phones. The phones will be able to make voice calls either on a cellular network, or by connecting via Wi-Fi wireless Internet to make calls using VoIP (a.k.a. Voice over Internet Protocol).

When in range of Wi-Fi in your office, home, Starbucks the phone will make calls using VoIP, which should be cheaper and better quality than a typical cell call. When there's no Wi-Fi, the phone will switch to the cell network.

That might not sound like a big deal, but it is. These phones will alter the dynamics of the telecom industry and change the way consumers think about phone service.

People could truly have one phone that is their home and cell phone, with all the advantages of both. Cell-Fi phones are the beginning of the end for common wired telephone service, which will become the bottom-rung stepchild of its industry the equivalent of AM radio, single-blade razors and film cameras.

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