Wi-Fi reliance increasing with growing mobile broadband adoption

Following closely on the heels of the Free Press complaining to the FCC that Verizon is preventing paying customers from surfing at swift speeds on devices of their choosing, Devicescape will soon release the findings of a Wi-Fi report showing the degree to which Wi-Fi is being used to complement, if not supplement, mobile broadband services that are not quite equipped to cover it all. (Devicescape, full disclosure, works directly with carriers and offers a virtual Wi-Fi network.)

According Devicescape, the report will include such findings such as that:

— nearly 90 percent of smartphone owners supplement their wireless data plan with Wi-Fi, at home and on the go;

— 73 percent of respondents said they'd considering switching carriers if faced with a data cap; and

— 82 percent of respondents expect access to Wi-Fi to be included in their wireless subscription.

On that last point, AT&T — which as the (until-recently) long-time sole provider of the iPhone, arguably had the toughest time meeting the data needs of its customers, particularly in tricky-to-cover locations such as Manhattan and San Francisco — has for some time been happy to oblige. It bought Wayport in 2008 and launched more than 20,000 hotspots for subscribers to turn to in Starbucks cafés and other locations (CP: As mobile data demand spikes, can Wi-Fi come to 3G’s rescue?). And after launching successful a "hotzone" pilots last year in heavily trafficked areas such as New York's Times Square, it announced in December that it was expanding the program, which successfully helped it to support high data traffic.

At the TIA 2011 conference in May, Verizon CTO Tony Melone mentioned that Verizon will similarly be "implementing Wi-Fi strategically" to support its wireless data customers (CP: Verizon to offload 3G/4G data through free Wi-Fi hotspots). While neither Melone nor a spokesperson would offer much detail on the plan, the latter confirmed that Verizon plans to provide 3G and 4G data customers with free access to Wi-Fi in heavily trafficked areas, such as hotels, stadiums and college campuses.

More than just free Wi-Fi with a latte, service providers are now using Wi-Fi as a way to better "shape" their data traffic flow, according to an April report from Volubill and Telesperience. Instead of the "frequently unpopular and fairly blunt instruments such as throttling and capping," states the report, providers are finding more "evolved" methods for managing traffic. Wi-Fi offloading — used by provider 33 percent of the time, the report found — is currently edging ahead as the most common form of traffic shaping, or "offloading."

"There are different types of Wi-Fi offload ranging from scenarios where just data services such as video are offloaded while the customers is within range of the Wi-Fi network," states the report. "More advanced scenarios support seamless roaming from the [service provider] network to the Wi-Fi network."

With more wireless carriers turning to data caps (even T-Mobile's new "unlimited" plan knocks users to a slower-speed technology after they've burned through a determined amount of data), consumers are likely to increasingly turn to Wi-Fi — if their carriers haven't directed them there already.