Unstrung – Survey Off Target
A current survey from Unstrung Magazine asks users how afraid wireless carriers should be about Voice over wireless LAN. The problem is, the survey has the wrong premise. Unstrung presumably sees VoWLAN as a threat to wireless carriers, but actually it will be used to the benefit of wireless carriers against wired telcos. Picture a wireless carrier like the UK’s O2 launching a service where you could use GSM when out and about, but in the office or home, it would switch to a WLAN and then use VoIP to carry your calls over a broadband connection to the termination point. This would mean that wireless companies could offer in-home services at lower costs than incumbents. This would also mean customers could drop their landlines and go to mobile only. Are the wireless companies threatened by that? (Uhh…the answer is no)
