Ruckus CEO sees smartphone Wi-Fi key to 3G offload

Lo: The thing about 3G and 4G is they're both based on licensed spectrum, and cellular is always going to be based on licensed spectrum. Licensed spectrum is always going to be limited because you have to pay for it. No matter how efficient you make that spectrum, you have devices that can eat up more.

Being a technology using unlicensed spectrum, Wi-Fi is always a good way to offload the network and build more capacity at the lowest possible cost per bit. You don't need to pay for spectrum and the Wi-Fi equipment is at a much lower cost, so I believe that even with LTE, carriers are going to continue to look at Wi-Fi as part of their whole mobile strategy.

Lo: Already in 2010, a lot of carriers are building out more hotspots, and it's not just dumb hotspots -- it's hotpsots that are now getting much more user friendly. For example, now with AT&T and the iPhone, you don't have to enter the network SSID, you don't have to enter your authentication code every time you use the hotspot. AT&T makes the phone authenticate by itself when it sees an AT&T ID. A lot of carriers are investing in that area -- to make hotspots part of the infrastructure. But in terms of tipping points, such as 80% of the carriers will be doing this, I think you're looking at 2011 or 2012.

You need to make that authentication automatic. One thing people really hate is [typing in a long password on the tiny keyboard] every time they use Wi-Fi. That's a disincentive. So, what AT&T did with the iPhone is automate that process so that your iPhone actually carries a unique authentication code. Each time it sees an AT&T hotspot and the user has turned on Wi-Fi, it will automatically send that code to AT&T's authentication system….. In terms of making the authentication easier and easier, it's a given that [all carriers] are going to have to do it.