Will Wifi spell the end of contract cell phone companies?

[Ringel05]

Disruptive $19/Month Carrier Republic Wireless To Sell Handsets For $99

Last week we broke the news that Bandwidth.com was launching a disruptive mobile carrier called Republic Wireless. The service will use special handsets that take advantage of Wifi networks whenever possible, and will fallback to a ‘normal’ cellular connection whenever Wifi isn’t available. A report from GigaOM pegs the price at a mere $19 per month — with unlimited text, data, and voice.

The handsets will be $99 for anyone who uses the code ‘welcome19′ by November 27. And that’s with no contract. After that early-signup period ends, the price will jump to $199, which is still significantly less expensive than most off-contract phones. Update: The code is welcome19, with a lowercase w — it won’t work if you use a capital letter.

Disruptive $19/Month Carrier Republic Wireless To Sell Handsets For $99 Until November 27 | TechCrunch

 

[PeteEU]

Not really, since most Wifi nets are behind some sort of security and those that are not, will soon be both for legal reasons and sustainability reasons. But the idea is a good one and I already some what use such a system with my smartphone since I have an IP phone number as well and use it whenever possible since it is cheaper to call on that than any mobile carrier. But finding available wifi networks is a pain though, even though here in southern Spain there are a ton of wireless providers. Problem is there coverage is no where 100% so you need to have an account with each of them and then it gets to be expensive heh.