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Comment by chubs | Hacker News Reader

Has anyone noticed that with facetime, and now especially if facetime goes on the itouch, apple is posing themselves as a total replacement for the telco hegemony? I mean, if you and all your friends have itouches and wifi, or something that implements the "open standard" of facetime, isn't that pretty much the end-game for the telcos?

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If it is the end game, it will play out at the same speed as email killing paper mail.

I've been considering switching back to a Touch from my iPhone. A 3g mifi router is much cheaper than a att's voice + dataplan and I personally would prefer not to have a phone. I'm fine with Skype now that it runs in the background on iOS 4.

Same here, and I was even considering it more when the 3G equipped iPod Touch cases leaked. Though I do notice the model in the FCC pics doesn't have a hole for the camera, I am sure that can be fixed (if not by the manufacturer, I have a drill that works just fine for a plastic case).

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/28/zte-peel-for-sprint-outed...

Here are the downsides to the MiFi:

- it gets really hot

- the battery only gets about 2.5 hours, max

- in NYC area, it is slow.

- it's not really cheap, it's $60/m for 5GB. Plus you have to pay $150 to buy it in the first place

If that still sounds good to you, I've got one for sale... ;)

Ha, nice. Of course it always seems like a good idea in theory, but it's another thing in practice.

It's really too bad municipal WIFI got crushed by the telecos, they really know how to hold onto power. I give them that.

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