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A case in point is Cablevision, in New York.  In the past few years they’ve gone head-to-head with other telco incumbents, and wireless companies as well, offering phone service, VoIP and broadband Internet to homes and businesses throughout the tri-state area.  Recently, they've initiated a program offering free outdoor Wi-Fi to existing Cablevision customers.  The Wi-Fi is available at commuter train stations, in parks, marinas and sports fields and a wide variety of busy hubs.

Using Wi-Fi for customer retention is also a model being proven outside the U.S.  In Norway, Telenor (a leading mobile operator) is using Wi-Fi as an offload vehicle for cellular data services. This is a typical scenario, as the 3G networks in Europe (as well as in the U.S.) are increasingly becoming congested with traffic.  What’s happening is that many operators are beginning to leverage smart clients to allow subscribers to seamlessly roam between 3G and Wi-Fi.

Being able to offload some of the 3G traffic to a Wi-Fi network speeds up traffic in increasingly crowded markets.  This quickly becomes a tremendous competitive advantage for the smart service provider that’s been looking ahead.

Simplifying OSS/BSS
Interestingly, billing can also serve as a retention tool.  When billing is complicated, as can be the case when integrating Wi-Fi service into an overall package with, say, cellular, it’s a chance for subscribers to look for an easier solution unless this is done correctly.  A key aspect with offloading to Wi-Fi is to make sure that the subscriber’s identity, service profile and end-user experience is handled consistently while traversing between networks of different wireless technologies and provides the operator with sufficient information of usage in both networks to cater to the ability to ensure a high service level.  Tight integration with existing billing can ensure a simplified process.

Partnerships with other service providers and wireless network operators can address automatic roaming and ensure that Quality of Service is maintained for their subscribers while in other networks.  Offering a mix of payment alternatives -- via SMS, pre-paid, loyalty programs, credit cards etc. -- also enhances the customer experience for nomadic users still not set up for automatic roaming.

Additionally, multi-access support from the same subscriber management system is important to get service transparency when roaming between different access technologies such as cable, WiMAX and Wi-Fi.

no single user is consuming all bandwidth by automatically distributing available bandwidth between users with the same service level agreement.

An advanced service management system can automatically log-in returning users based on their device’s unique address.  It can also offer plug-and-play capabilities that are specific to the unique capabilities of different devices. This is especially important for tier 1 cable operators starting Wi-Fi services because of the large volume of active users.

Support for roaming and pre-enabled support for roaming aggregators is another important feature especially for operators that do not build their own Wi-Fi capacity.  One way to obtain Wi-Fi capacity is of course to acquire a number of smaller Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs), while another strategy is to enable connectivity through other existing Wi-Fi networks with excess capacity.

The revival of Wi-Fi for larger operators as a customer retention tool will put legacy service management systems to the test, a test that many systems may not pass.  We can thus expect a consolidation and replacement of the current hotspot systems to carrier-grade next-generation wireless service management systems that have the functionality, scalability and stability to support a large-scale operation.