Technology Decoded

BBC NEWS | Technology | City-wide wi-fi rolls out in UK

BBC NEWS Technology City-wide wi-fi rolls out in UK

I have to say I'm very excited about this company. I know its old news that The Cloud is rolling out city wide WiFi networks in London, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham etc AND that this business/technology concept has been around since the beginning of last year when Google announced that it was going to offer free WiFi in Mountain View California, but I'm still very excited. I think we will see the start of the next consumer revolution in communications occur when these arrive. It will give people the complete freedom to connect to the internet, make video and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) calls using services such as Skype and the others in the report, in fact Motorola demonstrated its first phone back in May time last year including an application to link to Skype. The ability to connect anytime, anywhere (within a city) at a reasonable cost (figures have been muted to be around the £10/month flat fee for up to 1mbps) will see people hitting a tipping point whereby they will not only think of broadband as being something in the home or work, but something that can offer them specific, relevant, secure (WEP - Wireless Encription Protocol enabled links to keep your connection private) content on the go.

As important as it is for consumers, it is also a potentially devastating blow to the mobile carriers. Imagine, people will be able to use their Motorolas, Nokias, Sony Ericsson phones to connect at the touch of a button to broadband, bypassing the mobile carriers and their clunky, stuttering, expensive 3G applications and data rates and talk to anyone in the world for free (if the receiver is also using broadband and for an almost nominal amount if connecting to a land line). Why bother paying the mobile carriers? Why pay £7/mb for data downloads when you can stream video for 'free' within your monthly flat rate price? I'd like to think the mobile carriers are looking into ways they can link into this technology and i'll watch with interest as to their strategy to either combat it or embrace it.

You'll be able to play games, keep bang up to date with stock movements, weather updates, (or for a geek like me) RSS feeds from favourite websites. You'll be enabled for Location Based Services whereby you can be triangulated accurately from the WiFi masts giving both you and business great power to be able to send you relevant, targeted adverts, messages, offers and information. Indeed today, there are already smaller I(T/P?) based advertising companies specialising in the latest form of marketing "the segmentation of one". This technology looks at what you've been checking out on the internet and sends adverts and offers to you that it thinks you might like, but, with LBS the adverts will also be location relevant, popping up when you pass McDonalds recognising its lunchtime and offering you an extra cheeseburger if you go in and have a bite. The advertising will tell you that the latest Nike trainers have come in as you pass the store because the behavioural engine remembers you bought a pair online. Now, whether you like this idea or feel its an invasion of privacy, its exciting and its only just round the corner.

I think The Cloud, which is rolling out this technology in the UK is a very interesting company, i like its revenue models, scalability and flexibility to deliver these Metro area WiFi networks.

Bring it on!

posted by blueboyeddie @ 10:54 pm