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Uh oh...... WiFi is dead

That's kind of a basic description of what they want to do. They want to use some public frequency bands (instead of the common ones they lease from the government) for cellular. And many of those frequencies are used by WiFi. They are not trying to merge WiFi and cellular into one big system.
Many of the common bands are becoming very congested, and this will only get worse. The solution, in their eyes, is to use less congested frequencies.
 
and in the course of doing that, they are going to interfere with our own WiFi networks.

Of course, they will just say that "oh, your Local WiFi will me much stronger than our cell sites....
you won't have any problems.....

uh huh.... I have fought many a battle with interfering signals with my MicroWave Waveform analyzers....
We had to solve nearly all of them with very narrow beam pattern antennas. Because "everyone was legal".

The mix up is not pleasant with two interfering, non compatible signals are within range of each other.
 
For the majority of people, their Wi-Fi is vastly more important to them than their mobile data speeds. If this interferes with Wi-Fi -AT ALL- there will be hell to pay. This will probably be tied up in court for years. I still remember the fight over Clearwire when the bit of spectrum they owned allegedly, possibly, could have maybe slightly interfered with some GPS signals. It eventually got killed.
 
Let's not forget Comcast been doing something somewhat similar to this going back at least a couple of years now. By pushing their own modem/router boxes out to their unlucky customers they've been able to spread their own branded public WiFi. Can't remember the last time I've been out where there wasn't one of those annoying 'xfinitiwifi' SSIDs listed in my phone or laptop's wireless connection lists.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/16/technology/security/comcast-wifi-hotspot/
 
Let's not forget Comcast been doing something somewhat similar to this going back at least a couple of years now. By pushing their own modem/router boxes out to their unlucky customers they've been able to spread their own branded public WiFi. Can't remember the last time I've been out where there wasn't one of those annoying 'xfinitiwifi' SSIDs listed in my phone or laptop's wireless connection lists.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/16/technology/security/comcast-wifi-hotspot/

When I had Cox Cable in Arizona, I bought my own cable modem/router.

I did not want the Cox bloatware on my service line slowing things down for me.
 
Unfortunately the majority of Comcast customers, by a wide margin, not only opt to just use the Comcast-supplied modem/router but they pay a small monthly 'rental' fee for them that's a part of the usual monthly service charge. So most Comcast customers pay not just for the service, but also something for the hardware, plus they get nothing in return to allow Comcast to use their home service to build up a public WiFi network.
 
TMO has had phones with wifi talk enabled for years. It isn't that great unless you have NO coverage. We've never used it.

As for Comcast and Xfinity -

I use At Bat on my old Acer (I subscribe to MLB on the Roku)
Went to watch an old game a couple of months ago, and got told by MLB to log into Comcast. We are cable NEVERS, so the message was puzzling. A neighbor had just got the new Xfinity, and does have open wifi. The signal isn't strong enough to interfere with our DSL, and a reboot of the tablet fixed the problem. I can't tell the tablet to forget the Xfinity site, either.

I don't want my cell phone informing me that x wifi is available 24/7. Searching for wifi will use up the battery. We need to forbid some wifi if we don't want it. I have no intention of signing up for cable or satellite, so these sites are useless to me.

With most of the stores having open wifi now the point is moot.
 
WiFi calling here is as useless as tits on a boar hog....
only grasslands around me for miles.

ADSL is "so great", it only drops 2 or 3 times an hour.....
I try to click on a link to go to a new page, and........................... and.................. and............
nothing........... look up at the overhead shelf, and the NO SERVICE light is on...
 
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