Cable’s next step: Offer “virtual” cellular service

Cable companies have long hinted at using Wi-Fi as a kind of a poor-man’s cellular, and Cablevision’s new Freewheel service is the perfect example. Pricing starts at $9.95 a month, which is very cheap if you’re willing to forgo a mobile connection. But no Wi-Fi network has the umbrella coverage of a mobile network, nor can it support the handoff necessary for customers to move through a city without losing their connections.

If Cablevision wants to make its mobile service truly mainstream, well then it needs to support true mobility. There will be a lot of bumps along the way before a Cablevision phone service could match the reliability and availability of a Verizon service, but Wi-Fi technology is evolving to behave a lot more like cellular. Eventually technologies like Hotspot 2.0 will automatically connect us to available Wi-Fi using an encrypted link, and Next Generation Hotspot technology will allow one access point to hand off a voice call to another access point. But in the meantime, you can’t beat $10 a month.