There is just so much folklore on this, and so little controlled study, that it's hard to make a definitive claim. My own experience suggests that the iPhone, at least, does not optimize between 3G and Wi-Fi, and you're better off turning Wi-Fi off and leaving it off, turning it on only when you have some heavy data needs. In my experience this greatly increases standby battery time.

For residential uses, AT&T sells a device that acts as a home cell tower, providing a cell signal to your phone and then using your broadband Internet connection to carry the traffic. It's a great deal for AT&T, moving cell traffic off their network and onto yours. Over a year ago AT&T explored in Times Square moving traffic from their cell network to Wi-Fi in Times Square. AT&T would love for your broadband or cyber cafe connection to carry traffic that otherwise their cell network would need to.

If anyone can point to some serious literature on this that'd be good.

/rich

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 10:56 AM, Gary Schrock <[log in to unmask]> wrote

FWIW, my understanding is that using the wifi part of the phone is actually more battery efficient than using the cell side. So if that's an option in your building, it's probably the best option. (At least for the smartphone people who can't get email, obviously it's not going to help with calls.)

I know in my building I did set my phone up to access the wireless in the building, because there's a fair number of places that the cell signal just plane sucks. (Not surprising given the makeup of the building.)

Is there such a thing as a cell repeater that can be placed inside a
building? Or some other solution that has worked for folks?

Scott Smith

HR Systems Development and Support

Michigan State University