Deutsche Telekom's test results raise questions about Wi-Fi's offloading value

Tests conducted last year by Deutsche Telekom revealed that while Wi-Fi can be viewed as a complementary technology to 3G and LTE, it is not very useful for easing cellular network congestion through offloading. Company executive Matthias Siebert told attendees at the Wi-Fi Offload Summit 2014 in Frankfurt, Germany, that the hotzone trials in Hamburg and Rotterdam--which were aimed at letting users access Wi-Fi as an alternative to 3G or LTE--had almost no impact on cellular traffic. In fact, Siebert noted that cellular traffic actually increased in some cases. "Can Wi-Fi fulfill this promise of relieving cellular networks?" he asked. "That is not shown here. Wi-Fi is not the solution for offload, but it has other interesting features." For more, see this FierceWireless:Europe article.