WI-FI AT WAR

The new relationship between cable TV giant Comcast and T-Mobile's public Wi-Fi hot spot operation may have been consummated initially over a common attraction to promotional tie-ins, but it also illustrates the new battle lines in the broadband war between telcos and cable companies.

True, there is no real service or billing integration yet, but both service providers already have shown interest in taking things further. Also, while telcos such as Verizon Communications and SBC have announced strategies that integrate Wi-Fi with their current broadband DSL offerings, these efforts appear to be more limited than what Comcast is doing — immediately exposing all of its 5 million cable modem customers to discounted Wi-Fi access when their cable modems are not within an Ethernet cable's reach.

There have been many questions in the last few years regarding Wi-Fi's place in the broadband pantheon. Will it be an alternative to mobile 3G services? Will it be a grassroots solution that cleverly uses one wired DSL or cable modem to unwire entire broadband homes, thereby circumventing telcos and cable companies? Will it be a bonus to keep telco and cable customers loyal? Will it be an integral part or the overall broadband sum of these companies?

T-Mobile increasingly is answering the first question by proving that its Wi-Fi operation isn't just a side project. The agreement with Comcast demonstrates that its strategic plan for Wi-Fi goes well beyond putting broadband in coffee shops and collecting the bills.

Separately, telcos and cable companies are striving to answer the other three questions. At first, both types of companies saw Wi-Fi as a home invader, which it was, though an invader their own customers were happy to see. The hint was that providers should try to work with Wi-Fi, rather than shoot it on sight.

Right now, cable companies and telcos are in the middle of their answers to the third question. They've entered simple co-marketing partnerships that allow them to make a buck off Wi-Fi and appear more hip (at least slightly) to their users, without losing their shirts — just in case a public increasingly enamored with wireless data somehow proves fickle in the end.

Neither type of provider has yet to answer the fourth question. You'd think telcos would be embracing Wi-Fi in the home and packaging it with wireless voice devices for every room in the home. Likewise, with the cord-cutting trend, cable TV companies might have telcos on the ropes for the first time — could Wi-Fi enabled voice and data for residential users keep telcos falling backward?

There used to be a vision called the Wired Home. That vision is now becoming the prophecy of the Unwired Home, and it's time for someone to act on it.