22-02-2013, 04:33 PM
Wireless Internet access: 3G vs. WiFi
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Abstract
This article compares and contrasts two technologies for delivering broadband wireless Internet access
services: ‘‘3G’’ vs. ‘‘WiFi’’. The former, 3G, refers to the collection of third-generation mobile technologies
that are designed to allow mobile operators to offer integrated data and voice services over mobile
networks. The latter, WiFi, refers to the 802.11b wireless Ethernet standard that was designed to support
wireless LANs. Although the two technologies reflect fundamentally different service, industry, and
architectural design goals, origins, and philosophies, each has recently attracted a lot of attention as
candidates for the dominant platform for providing broadband wireless access to the Internet. It remains an
open question as to the extent to which these two technologies are in competition or, perhaps, may be
complementary. If they are viewed as in competition, then the triumph of one at the expense of the other
would be likely to have profound implications for the evolution of the wireless Internet and structure of the
service-provider industry.
Introduction
The two most important phenomena impacting telecommunications over the past decade have
been the explosive parallel growth of the Internet and mobile telephone services. The Internet brought the benefits of data communications to the masses with email, the Web, and eCommerce;
while mobile service has enabled ‘‘follow-me-anywhere/always on’’ telephony. The Internet
helped accelerate the trend from voice- to data-centric networking. Now, these two worlds are
converging. This convergence offers the benefits of new interactive multimedia services coupled to
the flexibility and mobility of wireless. To realize the full potential of this convergence, however,
we need broadband access connections. What precisely constitutes ‘‘broadband’’ is, of course, a
moving target, but at a minimum, it should support data rates in the hundreds of kilobits
per second (kbps) as opposed to the 50 kbps enjoyed by 80% of the Internet users in the US who
still rely on dial-up modems over wireline circuits, or the even more anemic 10–20 kbps typically
supported by the first generation of mobile data. While the need for broadband wireless Internet
access is widely accepted, there remains great uncertainty and disagreement as to how the wireless
Internet future will evolve.
WiFi
WiFi is the popular name for the wireless Ethernet 802.11b standard for WLANs. Wireline
local area networks (LANs) emerged in the early 1980s as a way to allow collections of PCs,
terminals, and other distributed computing devices to share resources and peripherals such as
printers, access servers, or shared storage devices. One of the most popular LAN technologies was
Ethernet. Over the years, the IEEE has approved a succession of Ethernet standards to support
higher capacity LANs over a diverse array of media. The 802.11x family of Ethernet standards are
for wireless LANs.16
How are WiFi and 3G same
From the preceding discussion, it might appear that 3G and WiFi address completely different
user needs in quite distinct, non-overlapping markets. While this was certainly more true about
earlier generations of mobile services when compared with wired LANs or earlier versions of
WLANs, it is increasingly not the case. The end-user does not care what technology is used to
support his service. What matters is that both of these technologies are providing platforms for
wireless access to the Internet and other communication services.
In this section we focus on the ways in which the two technologies may be thought of as similar,
while in the next section we will focus on the many differences between the two.
Both offer broadband data service
Both 3G and WiFi support broadband data service, although as noted earlier, the data rate
offered by WiFi (11 Mbps) is substantially higher than the couple of 100 kbps expected from 3G
services. Although future generations of wireless mobile technology will support higher speeds,
this will also be the case for WLANs, and neither will be likely to compete with wireline speeds
(except over quite short distances).22
The key is that both will offer sufficient bandwidth to support a comparable array of services,
including real-time voice, data, and streaming media, that are not currently easily supported over
narrowband wireline services. (Of course, the quality of these services will be quite different as will
be discussed further below.) In this sense, both will support ‘‘broadband’’ where we define this as
‘‘faster than what we had before’’.
Both services will also support ‘‘always on’’ connectivity which is another very important aspect
of broadband service. Indeed, some analysts believe this is even more important than the raw
throughput supported.
How are they different
In this section, we consider several of the important ways in which the WiFi and 3G approaches
to offering broadband wireless access services are substantively different.
Current business models/deployment are different
As noted above 3G represents an extension of the mobile service-provider model. This is the
technology of choice for upgrading existing mobile telephone services to expand capacity and add
enhanced services. The basic business model is the telecommunications services model in which
service providers own and manage the infrastructure (including the spectrum) and sell service on
that infrastructure.23 End-customers typically have a monthly service contract with the 3G
provider and view their payments as a recurring operating expense—analogous to regular
telephone service. Not surprisingly, the 3G business model is close to the wireline telephone
business. The mindset is on long-lived capital assets, ubiquitous coverage, and service integration.
Moreover, telecommunications regulatory oversight, including common carriage and interconnection
rules are part of the landscape.24 The service is conceptualized usually as a mass-market
offering to both residential and business customers on a subscription basis. The 3G deployment
and service provisioning model is top–down, vertically integrated, and is based on centralized
planning and operation.25 It is expected that 3G services will be provided as part of a bundled
service offering, to take advantage of opportunities to implement price discrimination strategies
and to exploit consumers’ preferences for ‘‘one-stop’’ shopping/single bill service.