As the wireless industry moves towards ratified seamless Wi-Fi roaming, Marguerite Reardon of cnet.com looks at the new relationships that are likely to develop as a result.
The most recent agreement signed between AT&T and Boingo has begun to pave the way for the new roaming partnerships that will come from seamless connectivity, says Reardon. With major telcos and Wi-Fi operators exploring the boundaries of what they can offer each other in terms of Wi-Fi offload, new business models are also likely to emerge.
There are essentially three parties involved in the relationship – the celco, the Wi-Fi provider and the venue, explains Reardon. While the celco and Wi-Fi provider have a direct relationship, the venues of the Wi-Fi networks will also demand a direct monetization of Wi-Fi networks.
“Some may want to gather analytics about subscriber usage patterns and sell that data to marketers. They may also want to offer targeted advertising,” Reardon explains.
Derek Peterson, senior vice president of engineering for Boingo Wireless explains that it is not always up to his organisation what happens within the Wi-Fi networks they provide.
“Some may charge a partner like AT&T for access. Others may want subscribers to go to a landing page to see an advertisement or some may want to aggregate data about what people are doing online to marketers,” Peterson explained.
According to fierecemobileit.com, the carrier-grade Wi-Fi market is going from strength to strength, driven by demand from mobile operators to augment their 4G deployments.
