AT&T ups Wi-Fi ante with Wayport acquisition

AT&T has bought up Wi-Fi hotspot provider Wayport for $275m, hugely increasing the number of places that subscribers with an iPhone or Blackberry Bold can get free access. The companies have worked together before; Wayport provided backhaul and management to AT&T hotspots. But Wayport always focused on providing hotspots in …

[Jason]

For those of us traveling abroad, it could save on horrendous data charges

When abroad Data roaming can be REALLY expensive over 3G (a global 250 plan on AT&T is $250 a month!).

Connect your cell to a hotspot and tether it to access the Internet over WiFi? Much cheaper!

[Anonymous Coward]

OH BUM!!!...

I'm Gonna Need A BIGGER JAMMER.....

and lots of shares in a certain russian Alu Smelting firm....

[Anonymous Coward]

Cost of delivering bits on Wifi vs cost on 3G

3G Data is _EXPENSIVE_.

Operators are selling it at up to 10 times under cost (more in Europe) to fill up unused capacity with the prices based on cost of backhaul dropping by a factor of more than 10 times in the next 3 years due to "technological advances". However, looking at the tech roadmap for backhaul the chances of this happening is roughly equivalent to seeing lucifer driving a snowplough to work.

The price differential between it and wifi is probably around 50+ times per bit.

Add to that the fact that Apple iPhone defaults to WiFi when available and ATT has a valueable tool to cut its costs compared to EU operators. They will be idiots not to use it.