On 12/11/14, 3:04 PM, "Rodney Joffe" <rjoffe@centergate.com> wrote:
The flip side is that as a(n) happy xfinity customer I get to roam in lots of places around the US (and maybe even abroad), as do all of the xfinity home customers.
Outside of the U.S., a customer can use the WiFi networks operated by Liberty Global. As of September 2014, Liberty Global had over 2.5 million home spots under the "Wi-Free" and ³WifiSpots" names (SSIDs) in various countries in Europe, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland and Switzerland. I expect more international roaming agreements in the future - which can save a lot of money compared to using international data roaming via 4G LTE, etc.
The only challenge I see is the issue around wifi congestion. In my DC condo building there are a couple of hundred xfinity cable modem customers, mostly with wifi.
Unlicensed WiFi is being taking to interesting new levels of scale around the world. As it does, new technical solutions will certainly be called for, including stuff like Œradio resource management¹ that can make APs aware of neighbors and collectively adjust power levels and channels to operate as an efficient whole.
From my standpoint, I want IP everywhere and I much prefer unlicensed spectrum to licensed. :-)
Jason