By 
MetroPCS announced they are teaming up with Devicescape to create a software solution to alleviate strain on MetroPCS’ network caused by increased data usage. The Android based software solution allows for seamless transition from cellular data to various Devicescape WiFi hotspots.
With the increase in congestion on cellular networks, thanks Android, and the increasing rollout of data caps this is a solution that works out for everyone concerned. Coupled with the fact that WiFi tends to be faster than what a cellular company can provide at the moment, this should be something that all major carriers should be taking a look at.
Devicescape access points aren’t hard to come by. There are over half a million hot spots available to MetroPCS users, none of which need to be logged into every time a device finds and tries to connect.
[Story and Image via Venture Beat]
If transistion is smooth would be nice for the OTR carriers to consider but they’re investing so heavily into faster cellular delivery, doubt they would. If they don’t charge extra that would be a nice solution for data!
I’m curious if this will drain their battery as much as having wifI on normally does.
I already do something like this with Tasker. At its default setting, it scans for Wifi networks every 10 minutes (while display is off, or 2 minutes while display is on) and connects to networks I’ve preselected if they’re available. The transition probably isn’t as seamless as it could be, but it works most of the time.
I imagine that a seamless transition would require that both radios be on full time, which could affect battery life.
Come on! They have only 2 Android devices, now if they were T-Mobile, sure I could understand.
Smoke, that was a good one:)
MetroPCS has a crappy network, I was surprised when they decided to take on the data strain.