VoWiFi vs Vo3G

Wed, Aug 11th 2004 1:00am — Mike Masnick

In an "on the one hand, on the other hand" (and repeat) style, Eric S. Brown goes over the arguments for and against voice over WiFi systems. While he wins points for being one of the few writers to use our preferred VoWiFi designation (rather than the awful VoWLAN that seems to be more popular), the article has its problems. All of the current VoWiFi problems are pushed aside by noting that they'll be solved at some point in the future. Indeed, that's likely. However, the "problems" that face 3G systems are assumed to remain forever. Cellular systems are certainly not constant, and by the time the issues with VoWiFi are really worked out, chances are we'll be a bit further along in the evolution of cellular systems as well. This doesn't mean the two sides won't compete -- or that one might steal quite a bit of business from the other, but a comparison should be on equal footing. Comparing today's technology to tomorrow's isn't all that useful.

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