AT&T Wireless Gets Behind Wi-Fi, Rejects Flat-Rate Billing
AT&T Wireless
AT&T will look to provide one bill and services that will help mobile users transition smoothly between the two wireless coverage areas, Dahn said. "Building solutions that are dual-data solutions provide a complete relationship," he said. "In the future, we will work on delivering a smooth hand-off from one technology to another."
Most U.S. wireless carriers are working on adding Wi-Fi to traditional cellular-based coverage, industry observers say. Sprint, for example, has invested in Boingo Wireless, an aggregator of Wi-Fi hot spots, and VoiceStream last year acquired the assets of troubled MobileStar, which provides Wi-Fi service in public sites including Starbucks coffeehouses.
VoiceStream renamed the company T-Mobile and plans to offer a combination of its next-generation wireless services based on GPRS technology coupled with Wi-Fi hot spots.
John Stanton, chairman of Voicestream Wireless and chairman and CEO of Western Wireless, confirmed the plans at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association's conference in Orlando, Fla., earlier this year. "It's an opportunity for us to leverage our existing environment, but it doesn't change the fundamental need for licensed services," he said. "I view Wi-Fi, if you will, to be 3G with training wheels."
On Monday, another AT&T competitor, Verizon Wireless, announced a flat-rate wireless-data billing plan for business customers of its fledgling, next-generation wireless services. However, Dahn said AT&T has no immediate plans for flat-rate pricing. AT&T's market research shows that most business users will consume 20 Mbytes to 50 Mbytes of wireless data per month, he said.
"I would challenge why [business users would want to pay for unlimited buckets at $100 when most business customers are going to fall way below that and I can offer them more affordable solutions," he said.
Still, some users will want more, Dahn added. "Those people who are going to be downloading a full PowerPoint presentation into a PDA with limited bandwidth on the device, good luck," he said.
AT&T expects to provide full coverage for its next-generation wireless network by the end of the year, Dahn said. By that time, AT&T will start upgrading the network to provide even better performance, he said.