Regarding Wi-Fi, T-Mobile has been strangely silent in 2004. They’ve issued a few boilerplate releases about Starbucks and Kinko’s but nothing significant otherwise. Could it be that they are hatching a major roaming deal with Wayport? I’d like to believe so, but I’m now thinking that the operator is awaiting word from Germany.

T-Mobile’s parent, Deutsche Telekom, recently announced that its carrier services division, T-Systems, has made good progress with its WLAN Roaming Platform (WRP). This neutral host network has 10,000 global hotspots either live or under negotiation. Partners include Portugal Telecom WiFi, Connexion by Boeing, All Telecom, Ozone and Lattelekom. No signs of Wayport though, which brings us back to the US.

Wayport’s recent McDonald’s Wi-Fi deployment win, coupled with its new business model, puts pressure on T-Mobile to respond in kind. The operator needs to expand its network by cutting a roaming deal with Wayport; there is simply no way around it. The T-Mobile has told me in the past that it is concerned about the quality of service on networks that it doesn’t control. It is rightfully proud of the T1 lines that provide backhaul to its 3,100 Starbucks locations. But the fact of the matter is that business travelers would rather have a slow connection than no connection at all.

The Wayport roaming deal will happen, but it might be driven by Germany at this point, which may mean more months of relative silence from T-Mobile. I don’t believe the roaming deal will be bilateral. T-Mobile may be better off just coughing up the cash to Wayport and then promoting the heck out of its dominant US network.