CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom-By 2007, more Americans will access mobile data via Wi-Fi than 2.5-generation or third-generation networks, according to a new report from Pyramid.
“This trend is not necessarily bad news for 3G. After all, a consumer may very well use both 3G and Wi-Fi,” reported Pyramid. “However, this trend should be a wakeup call to any carrier offering or planning to offer a cellular data service.”
According to Pyramid, T-Mobile USA Inc. has not been mistaken in investing in Wi-Fi deployments, adding that a bundled Wi-Fi/cellular service is attractive to valuable business users. In addition, Pyramid said there appears to be a correlation between Wi-Fi and cellular subscribers, with T-Mobile reporting more than 30 percent of its hot-spot users are also cellular subscribers.
Pyramid added commercial Wi-Fi also offers opportunity and believes direct Wi-Fi access revenues could exceed $1.5 billion by 2008 in the United States alone.
