The news that Taipei, a city of 3 million, is to install ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage should not come as a surprise to anyone who has had a taste of wireless broadband via the numerous hot spots springing up around our capitals. What it portends, however, is not good news for traditional carriers.

According to research group Gartner, Sydney is already a showcase for wireless data services. Several significant commercial wireless broadband networks are already deployed across the city, overcoming the infrastructure limitations and high costs of fixed broadband access.

The question that remains is where does this leave the traditional carriers? By that, we do not mean just the wired carriers of Telstra and Optus, but also the wireless voice carriers, all of whom have mega-bucks tied up in their legacy voice and data networks. Only a few years ago, we saw the Federal Government harvest a fortune from numerous players through a series of spectrum auctions. Carriers, were willing to spend a fortune investing in building quasi-broadband wireless GPRS and 3G networks.

Now with technologies, such as Wi-Fi , the emerging WiMax, iBURST, and Rip Wave, providing the prospect of real wireless broadband, why would anyone based in capital cities want to connect to an underperforming GPRS or 3G network? Furthermore, if you can be online wirelessly with a broadband connection for around the same price as a wired connection, why would you need a wired broadband connection?

However, it is not just data carriage that is under pressure but also voice. The emergence of VoIP as a viable alternative to PSTN is receiving much publicity of late. However, in the near future, VoIP may also provide a real alternative to relatively expensive mobile voice networks. If you can imagine a scenario where our cities are fully empowered with wireless broadband, which is happening as we speak, then the prospect of using inexpensive or even free VoIP products such as Skype over a wireless broadband connection eventually becomes a real alternative to GSM mobile voice or even PSTN telephony.

There is already an iBURST network deployed throughout the Sydney metropolitan area, plus the CBDs of Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, offering continuous wireless broadband connectivity to users traveling at traffic speeds. Typically, plans start at prices as low as $39.95 a month capped and can be deployed on PDA devices as well as notebook computers. It literally makes the concept of 3G as a wireless data platform obsolete before it has even got off the ground.

With all this new wireless technology literally bursting on the scene in Australia, the question must be asked again: Where does this leave the traditional carriers? The answer can best be summed up by Gartner's research director, mobile and wireless, Robin Simpson, who says, "One thing is certain. Wireless broadband will disrupt the way we communicate on the move. And in the heat of the battle, the carrier or operator that ignores wireless broadband will get lost in the dust of those who see the business opportunity."

Simpson will be speaking on this topic at the Gartner Symposium on 18 November.