Conclusion: is this a disruptive dongle?

Readers with long memories may remember an Israeli company that tried the same concept around six or seven years ago. Back then it was a Bluetooth based PAN, and the company - IXI - called it a personal mobile gateway.

A Bluetooth watch on every wrist! The future as seen from the PAN era, c.2002

It was probably too early to market - Bluetooth headsets hadn't yet conquered the Chav market - and it was swept aside as manufacturers looked to incorporate low cost 802.11b into devices. That was classic technology looking for a solution.

But the MiFi opens lots of avenues for imaginative operators, if that isn't an oxymoron. A canny operator should be able to offer subsidised Apple iPod Touches (or similar devices) for music, email, browsing - and perhaps add a "Phone Manager" application, all bundled with a MiFi.

Then there's the tantalising possibility of new services. I've advocated "social hardware" - or peer-to-peer uses of mobile for almost a decade. Here's a piece on what you can do with discovery services over personal area networking, from about six years ago, for example. Many of these are users that infringe copyright, but many technologies were copyright infringing at birth. Rights holders should exploit them, not outlaw them, for the enrichment of creators.

The MiFi makes these more possible. Just as pals on a night out have a designated driver - I wonder if we'll have a "designated router"? ®

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