Telepocalypse

Personally speaking

It seems that Personal Mobile Gateway technology is slowly creeping towards the market (via Techdirt). These deivces enclose a wireless Internet backhaul connection and local wireless links (using Bluetooth, etc.) to gadgets that need the connectivity to the outside world. The result is a Personal Area Network spanning your bald patch to your ingrown toenails.

What's interesting about these is that they physcially separate service and connectivity into different devices. This is likely to cause heartburn to wireless network operators, who delight in controlling the devices on their network and extracting maximum revenue from service price discrimination. Even worse (from their perspective) is that these devices are likely to create an ecosystem of application devices that is totally outside carrier control. Once you have a personal gateway on your belt clip, you're not going to take kindly to your carrier telling you which gizmos you can carry on your person.

My take is that the early adopter market is barely ready for these devices. The obvious users will be in vertical enterprise applications. This is nowhere near ready as a consumer play. Cellular data is too expensive as backhaul. WiFi has too short a range for pervasive coverage of a factory or office building. Alternatives are either highly proprietary or pie-in-the-sky. Maybe give it another two years. But this technology is inevitable and is yet another nail in the coffin of the network operator having control over the application services.