It's more vaporware: cell phone billing for hotspot usage for hotspots that don't exist: Over the last year, four Canadian cellular telephone carriers have made deals for inter-network roaming, issued press releases, and most recently said that Wi-Fi usage could be billed directly to a cell phone account.
Of course, the carriers haven't built a single hotspot, and the leading Canadian firm FatPort already offers a variety of billing and roaming options. FatPort has partnerships for bilateral roaming with other networks worldwide, including Surf and Sip. Their locations are resold via iPass, GRIC, and Boingo. They work with Excilan to allow certain cell customers to pay via cell phone for their service already.
All this to say that the cell companies in Canada are offering a lot of noise for no results. Their promise to build 500 locations by the end of 2004 might be impeded by the locations and chains already under contract to FatPort and to companies to which FatPort has licensed their technology or for which FatPort is operating networks.
The article also incorrectly states that hotspot users have to enter a credit card each time, disregarding the many subscription plans and pre-paid card options offered by FatPort in Canada and other hotspot networks worldwide. I know the Globe and Mail is a major daily newspaper, but this article was written by proxy by the cell carriers who told the reporter exactly what to think--note the paucity of quotes and none from companies outside the partnership. [link via TechDirt]