  Fueled by its recent success in provisioning on-site wireless Internet
access, Wi-Fi is currently perceived as the best positioned technology for
pervasive mobile macro network offloading. However, the broad transitions of
multiple collocated operators towards this new paradigm may result in fierce
competition for the common unlicensed spectrum at hand. In this light, our
paper game-theoretically dissects market convergence scenarios by assessing the
competition between providers in terms of network performance, capacity
constraints, cost reductions, and revenue prospects. We will closely compare
the prospects and strategic positioning of fixed line operators offering Wi-Fi
services with respect to competing mobile network operators utilizing
unlicensed spectrum. Our results highlight important dependencies upon
inter-operator collaboration models, and more importantly, upon the ratio
between backhaul and Wi-Fi access bit-rates. Furthermore, our investigation of
medium- to long-term convergence scenarios indicates that a rethinking of
control measures targeting the large-scale monetization of unlicensed spectrum
may be required, as otherwise the used free bands may become subject to
tragedy-of-commons type of problems.
