The Role of WiFi in a Cellphone

The HTC Touch is normally manufactured with WiFi as a standard feature, but Bell had it removed from the units supplied to them. The reasoning, perhaps, other than cost, is that why would you need WiFi if you have unlimited internet over the cellular system?

For most situations it's true, and I have actually been greatly relieved not to be constantly searching for hotspots to do my major internet activity (like banking), to avoid high data costs through the phone.

WiFi is also a power hog, and since the battery life of the Touch is somewhat limited (barely a day of normal use on a full charge), this also may have been a factor in their decision.

But, there are several situations where WiFi is very useful:

• if you want to tether your laptop and avoid data fees
• when you are roaming
• if you want to turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot.

Tethering Your Laptop

If your service provider charges extra for tethered data transfer, and you don't want to use an alternative tethering program, you can avoid the extra data charges (and still be tethered) if you have a WiFi hotspot available.

Using WiFi When Roaming

As soon as I depart for Mexico in the winter, I'm roaming, and my $7 per month unlimited bandwidth account basically evaporates. The roaming charges are very high (up the wahzoo), and this is when I start looking for posadas that have WiFi available, or are at least in close proximity to an internet cafe.

I even carry a high gain directional antenna for WiFi with me to Mexico, similar to the one pictured on the left, and a magetic car rooftop antenna, as it is often possible to connect my laptop to unsecured WiFi hotspots, thus avoiding any data roaming charges.

When I was in Playa Del Carmen earlier this year, I actually saw one that was called 'Use It But Don't Abuse It'. How's that for a WiFi network SSID name? The owner obviously understood how important it is to find a hotspot.

My HTC TyTn GSM phone (a predecessor to the HTC Touch) has WiFi built in, and is also very useful for working on the net when I don't want to drag out my laptop. If you get one of these data capable GSM phones, you might also want to get the software I use that totally disables the cellular data side of the phone, as it will automatically use cellular data if it becomes available, while you think you're using WiFi. This is another way you can end up with a huge data bill when you return home.

Even though my CDMA Touch won't work most of the time in Mexico (the country is primarily GSM, as is most of the rest of the world), it would be nice if it had Wifi so that it was of some use while roaming.

But, all is not lost, there are now dual-purpose storage cards for these phones that ALSO have WiFi built right into the microSD memory chip (Spectec, Sandisk). I'm talking about the storage cards that slide into the phone slot that provide additional memory.

It is also now possible to turn your phone into a WiFi hotspot, which is the other reason to have WiFi onboard your cellphone.

NEXT: Turn Your Cellphone into a WiFi Hotspot