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Do phones really need WiFi?

On the face of it, you hardly need to ask why phones need WiFi. It's simply more connectivity, and that's got to be a good thing. It also means that you can make calls over the WiFi link using VoIP rather than coughing up for expensive voice over the cellular network.

What brought the question into focus this week was BT's instituting a £1,000 competition for anyone who could come up with a compelling application for WiFi in a phone - and because my own contract with Voda is up and I'm reassessing what I want from my next phone.

At first, WiFi was near - if not at - the top of the list. With WiFi, I'd be able to take advantage of all those public hotspots, I'd be able to use my office's access point, and I'd be able to - er - and that's where it started to grind to a halt.

As our story pointed out this week, "it's not often that one finds oneself with a WiFi connection, a need to surf, and no laptop nearby", a statement that's broadly true. So the likelihood of needing to download vast screeds of data over a WiFi link aren't that great, especially since you can't do a whole heap with it in a phone-shaped and sized device. And if you're in the office or at home, there are wires which aren't too inconvenient for synchronising (even if flaky Bluetooth is working).

From a VoIP perspective, I had a hard think about this. When would I use VoIP? When I'm indoors, in a static location, because WiFi doesn't roam. What's more when you are moving, such as in a WiFi-enabled train, experience suggests that handover from cell to cell or - much worse - from 3G to GPRS and back again, is by no means seamless when downloading raw data.

Imagine what that does to a VoIP call, even if the first 20 feet are over WiFi.

And WiFi is hardly battery-friendly.

Yes, VoIP calls over WiFi might cheaper - especially if you want to talk to anywhere abroad - and that's got to be the major application, since most business users will have a bundle of minutes that make domestic calls effectively free. But outside of that, what would I be missing?

It goes against the grain, but I've quietly (so I wouldn't notice) removed WiFi from the top of my list of must-have features. Now at the top are standard sockets: a mini-USB for charging and syncing, and a 2.5mm socket so I can use my favourite headphones, not the rubbishy ones you get in the box. What are the odds?

Is the shine coming off WiFi?