RCR Unplugged: Marvell Avastar Wi-Fi offloads 3G congestion

There was much made at this year’s CTIA about the problem of congested 3G network congestion and how to solve the issue moving forward. To this end, Marvell, a rather marvelous mid-size chip maker based in Santa Clara, has come up with a way to access the web on your phone using Wi-Fi instead. Marvell’s Wi-Fi technology creates virtual private networks which let mobile operators securely deliver rich content to a user’s handset, tablet, eReader, netbook, laptop and even TV. Mobile devices with Marvell’s Wi-Fi tech are designed to authenticate subscribers based on their SIM cards to automatically access operator controlled Wi-Fi public and private hotspots, meaning high-speed, secure Internet access without any convoluted, complex login processes. The tech uses strong authentication allowing operators to divert traffic for more optimized access to the public Internet or mobile core networks. Marvell reckons the chip support for secure tunnels offers a rather efficient way to extend 3G network capacity and coverage. More marvelous news for consumers is that the tech allows users to preserve their network minutes.