If you don’t have an internet connection at home and stays at coffee shops and malls just to be able to visit you favorite social networking site, you’ll be happy to know that PLDT and Smart are working on a new Wi-Fi service that will let you connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot even if you’re at home.
The new Wi-Fi service is called “carrier-grade WiFi” and will be rolled out in 2012. What carrier-grade Wi-Fi will do is let mobile device users to connect to the internet using indoor and outdoor WiFi hotspots through the use of a prepaid or postpaid account. What sets this service apart from other services is it will be made available in local neighborhoods. What PLDt and Smart will do is install access points in their base stations. All the user needs is to sign in with a username and password which can be purchased online or in retail stores. The companies are also working on a scheme that will do an automatic authentication through the use of a subscriber’s SIM card.
You can use the service using any Wi-Fi enabled device and it is not carrier-dependent. So that means you don’t need to be on any specific telephone network in order to use the service. There is also no need to buy a device in order to enjoy carrier-grade Wi-Fi.
This is a great service, in my opinion and will make internet available to a wider range of users. As long as the internet connection provided is fast and reliable, we may no longer need to get those contract-based internet subscriptions. Let’s see how this service turns out and how cheap it will be for the users.
