The following post has been written by our very own Arthur G. Giftakis, Vice President of Engineering and Network Operations at Towerstream. Arthur has played an extremely important role in designing and implementing our technology over the last 10 years. Arthur will be creating a series of guest blog posts exploring the idea of ‘mobile offloading’. Please feel free to let us know all thoughts, comments and feedback.

Regards,
Jeff Thompson, CEO

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iPhone, iPad all day all night coverage. You can’t get away from it, you can’t deny it, consumers and businesses want their data and they want to move around with it. The old adage, “If you build it they will come” apparently fell on deaf ears in this case. In spite of every analyst predicting it, in spite of the immediate success of the first iPhone, all these new great devices coming to market are stilled choked by an obsolete 2G, 3G and fledging 4G network.

Anyone who has an iPad can tell you that when on a Wi-Fi network, it is a simple thing of functional beauty. If you do not have access to a Hi-Speed Wi-Fi network, it becomes a paperweight. The defining moment of the limitation of these devices is when Steve Jobs himself was left holding his pride and joy 4G iPhone useless as a WiFi gaff left his newest creation helpless.

When are the carriers going to understand the feasibility, scalability and cost effectiveness of a robust Wi-Fi network? You will hear all kinds of reasons why it can’t be done; “Wi-Fi is not secure”, “Wi-Fi has limited Quality of Service”, “Wi-Fi uses unlicensed spectrum”, “Wi-Fi has limited range”, the excuses are never ending. Let’s dispel some of these conceptions. Wi-Fi is secure, if it was not, it would not be in just about every internal corporate environment. The newer Wi-Fi units on the market have QoS built in for voice and video. Higher end Wi-Fi units can easily go 1500 feet in an outdoor environment and have excellent wall penetration characteristics in an indoor environment. Antenna technology has come a long way. MiMo and other “Smart Antenna” technology has not only increased ranges and penetration but has mitigated the high noise floor concerns of unlicensed spectrum. Simply put, a Wi-Fi network can be as reliable as the best cell network when built properly.

Is there an opportunity for a small company to make a significant contribution to solving this problem— we think YES so stay tuned. What do you think? We encourage you to comment below or reach out on Twitter @Towerstream.