Wireless networks set to go through the roof

THE MARKET for fixed wireless, WiMax, and WiFi gear will be worth some $12.4 billion by 2010, a researcher reckons.

Dublin-based company Research and Markets says the wireless market was worth $2.4 billion in 2004, but suggests a number of reasons why this figure will grow substantially over the coming years.

Wi-Fi adoption has been slowed in the enterprise sector by security fears, which may be allayed by new protocols. But consumers are less worried about security - or perhaps less well informed - and prices for wireless hardware have been falling, giving the sector a boost.

The researcher reckons that as voice over IP (VoIP) technology will become more commonplace, as wireless networks expand, so mobile phone users will increasingly use wireless Internet connections to chat away, depending on how the billing is figured out.

"As VoIP becomes more common it may be that handsets evolve for use in hot spots to connect voice calls using the hot spot Internet access," the report Fixed Wireless, WiMax, and WiFi Market Opportunities, Strategies, and Forecasts, 2005 to 2010 will state.

Wi-Fi has experienced an unprecedented rate of market acceptance, growing faster than Ethernet did at the same evolutionary stage, say the researchers. The availability of low-cost Wi-Fi clients and the increasing trend towards built-in Wi-Fi on mobile computing platforms will accelerate this growth, they reckon.

They also find that the The WLAN market has grown exponentially. Demand is for mobility in and out of the office, they say, but the introduction of mobility into the WiMAX roadmap could be a complication.

Many operators have made significant investments in 3G and Wi-Fi equipment and WiMAX is likely to play an integral part in many future wireless broadband deployments. But WiMAX and 3G have different strengths and weaknesses and the researchers reckon the two could conflict.

Mobile WiMAX will enable wireline and second-tier operators without 3G licenses to challenge the larger Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs). So mobile WiMAX service providers could disrupt the ability of other providers to earn a reasonable return on their investment, they warn.

While the figures for fixed Wireless, WiFi, and WiMAX markets are anticipated to reach $12.4 billion by 2010, the forecasts for strong growth are based on the assumption that systems will work well to transmit information from different locations where people congregate, says the report, which is published in May. µ

L'Inq
Research and Markets