WiFi Vs. 3G - DB has his money on 3G! (Another prophetic rant from frequent contributor "DB")

Cometa throws in the towel. Cometa, a WiFi startup is
getting out of the business (and going out of business)
because they couldn't make the WiFi solution work from a
revenue standpoint. Unlike the very big players, they don't
have the money to take from other profitable divisions to
stay aloft. This is just the start.

Intel knew better than to get into WiFi directly (they make
WiFi chips) so they used Cometa as a sort of proxy. They
were smart. This isn't the end of WiFI by a long shot but
it shows the likely future. Paying for WiFi is a dead-end
prospect. It's great for attracting customers if the
service is free, sort of a loss leader to get you in the
door but paying for it? Not me.

I used to have a Starbucks WiFi account (T-Mobile Hotspot)
until I took a long hard look at what it cost versus what I
got. It costs right at a dollar a day so unless you are in
Starbucks every day that isn't cheap. Even if you are a
coffee junkie, that still isn't cheap for what you get;
checking your email or maybe reading the news. Miss a few
days and that price per use average goes through the roof.
Now maybe they will create a plan that lets you buy days at
the bulk rate like you buy some mobile phone services. They
do have a per minute/hour plan but then the costs go way up.

For that same price, I can get a T-Mobile data account and
get the Internet just about anywhere. It isn't as fast as
the WiFi service but then I use it for the same reasons I
was using the WiFi service at Starbucks; checking email,
reading the news etc. SacBee.com comes up quite nicely
using GPRS Mobile Internet service thank you.

WiFi in the home is Okay, but only if you lock it down to
secure your data otherwise you might as well leave the
house and leave the doors open, it about the same thing.

So what is the future of WiFI? Chances are your equipment
is already obsolete when compared to the new standards. Now
you are going to have to replace not only your WiFi router,
but every WiFi network card in all your PCs. Think about it
when comparing costs to wired stuff in the house. All of a
sudden it isn't so cheap.

WiFi will be around for a long time but already 3G mobile
Internet services are ripping through Europe. By this time
next year, I think WiFi will start to wane as people
realize that it isn't what they thought it was. I've heard
plenty of people wonder why their WiFi stuff doesn't work
on vacation. They actually thought it worked like mobile
phone service. Welcome 3G!