Cell or Wifi

Future timeline for netinfo API: * API allows distinction between cell/wifi * Authors serve lower quality but smaller content to cell users…

— Jake Archibald (@jaffathecake) March 3, 2014

This is inevitable, and a terrible idea. It is based on two major assumptions:

1. Cell connections are slower than Wifi connections
2. Cell connections are unmetered and Wifi connections are not

These are both often wrong. My office sits in a cell signal black spot. I'm lucky to get one bar of 3G. Sadly, the wifi isn't up to much either (this isn't a problem as almost all my work goes over ethernet).

If, on the other hand, I walk 200 meters to the east, I find myself with a nice 4G signal that is (last time I measured it) 42 times faster than the wifi.

Since I'm with 3, that 4G is “all-you-can-eat”.

As for the second assumption, doesn't take much effort to find a home broadband package with a usage cap.