Deutsche Telekom: Tackling the data deluge with help from customers' Wi-Fi

From a recent ZDNet article:

...Deutsche Telekom putting its foot firmly in the Wi-Fi offload camp, and marks a further signal of Wi-Fi's growing importance to operators who seek alternative ways of managing rampant mobile data traffic.

"The astonishing increase in data traffic calls for network optimisation and expansion, as well as the implementation of new high-speed networks," said Deutsche Telekom spokesman Dirk Wende, citing comments made by outgoing Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann. "The partnership with FON fits perfectly with Telekom's network expansion strategy. Wi-Fi and hotspots can be used to divert heavy data traffic to fixed-line networks and thus reduce the load on mobile networks."

Deutsche Telekom sees Wi-Fi as complementary to its existing services, and certainly has no plans to blanket Germany (a geographically large country) with its own Wi-Fi hotspots.

As it builds up its Wi-Fi offering, the operator is continuing with its LTE rollout across Germany, aiming for 85 percent population coverage by the end of 2016. Wende said Deutsche Telekom doubled the number of its LTE sites by the end of 2012 compared to 2011, and has deployed LTE services in 1800MHz spectrum in more than 100 cities.

"With Wi-Fi To Go we want to extend our Wi-Fi network; a wide area coverage with Wi-Fi like we have with mobile is not the intention," said Wende. "Wi-Fi is a complement to mobile and fixed lines. In our mind we want our customers to be always best connected — it doesn't depend on the technology."

Deutsche Telekom is launching the Wi-Fi To Go service based on the FON partnership, and said by 2016 it wants to set up more than 2.5 million additional hotspots in Germany through the offering. As part of the FON deal, Deutsche Telekom customers now have access to some eight million hotspots worldwide, with Deutsche Telekom adding 12,000 hotspots to the FON pot...

Complete article: How one mobile operator is tackling the data deluge with help from customers' Wi-Fi | ZDNet:

This brings us to the same debate as I mentioned in a post earlier 'Is Wi-Fi the Third RAN?'