In a great little piece about Kodak's coming WiFi camera, the EasyShare One, Glenn Fleischman delivers a Clue about T-Mobile's coming strategy.

As the weakest link among cellular networks (after Sprint buys Nextel) T-Mobile is going to be in a world of hurt, as we've said. (That's the Kodak EasyShare to the left, from Glenn's blog.)

So what's the solution? According to Glenn, it's 802.1X. That's the new authentication standard for 802.11 networking. T-Mobile is putting it into its paid hotspot network, and Kodak will put this into its camera this fall.

Glenn explains:

If Kodak preloads unique accounts, or allows people to set this up through PC or camera back software, there’s very little complexity. The 802.1X supplicant in the camera can manage the connection.

If Kodak can handle this, of course, so can other consumer products. T-Mobile looks set to enable its hotspots for its cameras, and push the scheme on to other consumer products companies, whose customers will then sign up for T-Mobile's service.

Assuming the gear works on other networks that don't require authentication, you'll be greatly expanding T-Mobile's broadband footprint at virtually no cost, while maintaining control of all those customers.

Good pick-up, Glenn.