Working Toward Roaming For Wireless ISPs

hrhsoleil writes "In the category of: This seems like a no-brainer and why-didn't-someone-do-it-before, according to SearchMobileComputing, the Internet Protocol Detail Record Organization (IPDR) is pushing a set of specifications that would allow users to roam among different providers' hot spots. IPDR is an industry group that addresses billing issues for wireless carriers -- they've got the Wi-Fi Alliance, Gric Communications, and the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association backing them up on this one so it might actually get off the ground. It's about time that wireless ISPs get their act together and make roaming possible. If I can go to almost any bank machine in the world and be able to use it without needing to sign up for a new account, why can't I do the same with hot spots?"

Comments

Roaming fees

[andyrut]

It's great that wireless Internet is moving in this direction, even if it's going to take some time since wireless ISPs aren't interconnected yet. But I'm sure as with many wireless phone companies, providers will charge fifty cents a nanosecond to roam on another provider's network. If your wireless network doesn't reach you, just keep a look out for mysterious symbols on the sidewalk.

Universal ID

[mystik]

You can use your bank card anywhere, because it's a distributed Universal ID system.

Your account includes a bank identifier, and an account identifier, which uniquely points to your pile of cash.

To allow a similar system w/ Wireless, you'd need some kind of 'accepted' universal ID system.... and we've a disussion of where this goes a few months back (see Liberty Alliance and MS's .net Passport)

Fees?

[Stingr]

"If I can go to almost any bank machine in the world and be able to use it without needing to sign up for a new account, why can't I do the same with hot spots?"

I just hope that they don't charge me $2.50 everytime I want to use a someone else's hotspot.

Equality

[mcrbids]

Here's the core problem with interoperability...

Assume that the average contract is $40 a month. (About what it is now) Assume that a big company has a sizable saturation in an area.

Now, assume that a competitor comes into an area and wants to charge $30 per month. Interoperability means that this new competitor can provide the same service as the bigger company yet charge a lower price.

So, there must be fees that the smaller competitor must pay to the larger company in order for this to work. Do you think the larger company will be cheap? Do you think that they will *really* let the smaller company charge $30 and still make a profit?

Whatever this deal is, it'd better be mighty strong.

-Ben

Re:Wireless ISP's problem with this

[cleetus]

I could quite easily open an account with the cheapest wISP I could find (say the caniadian one so I can save because of the exchange rate) then use a local wISP for access.

In this case the local WISP would surcharge you and your cheap WISP would pass the surcharge right along to you, perhaps with a handling fee to boot.

This not only prevents the scenario you speak about, but also allows the installation costs of a hot spot to be borne more by those who use that hotspot. If it's hard to get wireless into a particular area for whatever reason, trust me, whatever ISP installs a hotspot will cover that cost or they won't let you on.

cleetus

Re:Wireless ISP's problem with this

[corbettw]

The real problem with roaming and Wi-Fi lies with customers who try to cheat the system.

I'm not a cell phone expert, but I'm pretty sure a portion of the roaming charges you pay on your cell phone get passed on to the owner of the network you're roaming on. For instance, if you're a T-Mobile customer in a location with no T-Mobile cell, and you roam through an AT&T cell, part of the extra money T-Mobile charges you gets passed on to AT&T. A lot of big cell providers will negotiate roaming charges between themselves, so they can offer lower rates to their customers, and be more competitive than smaller cell providers.

The same would likely happen here. WISPs like Boingo and such would pass on some of the roaming charges to their competitors to gain access to their networks, allowing the customer to roam in the first place. And most likely, they would negotiate for better prices depending on how large their own network is (the more hotspots they operate, the less they have to pay someone else to use theirs). So while competition would drive prices down (which is a good thing), noone will be getting anything for free. At least not until the WISPs have paid off their investment into their infrastructure.

Apples and Oranges?

[BeemanH2O]

"If I can go to almost any bank machine in the world and be able to use it without needing to sign up for a new account, why can't I do the same with hot spots?" Well you're comparing public and private and wired and wireless networks, Apples and Oranges. Banks use a private network between each other to communicate transactions and when you use the competitors ATM you get charged a service fee. Part of that goes towards using that private network. And from a buisness sense, it wouldnt be all that great to have your customers wandering around on other's networks yet you're still responsible for whatever they're doing.

Re:Free is the way to go here.

[op00to]

Provide me the free bandwidth and legal immunity from the users of the hotspot, and I'll give you a free hotspot.