Qualcomm introduces Gobi Global Mobile

Yeah this is pretty awesome but it will be no more a threat to wifi than wifi is to 3G. They both have advantages for different situations. Wifi is great for private networks or for relatively small areas and other miscellaneous LAN Use. You can't use 3G in this way and Wifi is generally going to be a real lot faster (providing it has a fast internet connection) and it isn't going to have as many problems with bandwidth amoungst many users as 3G might in a densely populated area.

But wifi is useless for getting a connection while rolling down the highway or on a beach or someplace else that does not have a wifi hotspot in the immediate area. If you're in the 'burbs it's hit or miss and mostly miss. And even in cities, you might be able to hop from wifi connection to connection, but you can't get the seemless coverage that a mobile network gives you.

This is why plans to have wifi coverage over a very large geographic area fail. The technology was never designed for that and it isn't especially good at that. It *can* be done, but 3G service is an outgrowth of cell phone service. You wouldn't want to stop every time you wanted to make a call and scan for wifi networks and then connect to one (although some people do to save money)

They're not really as much competitors as some make them out to be. Different uses entirely.