ABI Research released several recent reports on the Wi-Fi and in-building wireless space. The research firm estimated that Wi-Fi hotspots will reach a total of 6.3 million this year, from 4.9 million globally in 2012. That figure includes wireline and wireless carriers’ hotspot networks, as well as third-party vendors such as Boingo and iPass.
The North American Wi-Fi market makes up only a small percentage of the global Wi-Fi market. OABI reported that 88% of Wi-Fi is in Asia-Pacific, followed by 8% in Europe, 3% in North America and 1% in the other regions.
ABI also outlined the battle going on among Wi-Fi, distributed antenna systems, and small cell installations for a piece of the $3.5 billion in-building wireless space. Active DAS, the company said, is the leading choice for large corporations with more than 100,000 sf and more than 100 employees to cover. Small and medium businesses generally choose between Wi-Fi and small cell. Neutral host DAS systems, rather than carrier-specific installations, are a more popular model than single-carrier.
“Neutral hosts are increasingly popular for multi-tenant situations since multi-carrier DAS systems can add value with either carrier-led, venue-led or third party business models,” said Nick Marshall, ABI principal analyst.
Infonetics Research also reported on some Wi-Fi findings. The analyst firm found that the worldwide carrier Wi-Fi market grew 53% in 2012, compared to the previous year. Cisco kept its lead in market revenue share, followed by Ruckus Wireless and Ericsson, with all three seeing significant year-over-year growth, Infonetics said.
“The carrier WiFi space is red hot right now, driven by the explosion in demand from mobile operators using WiFi to augment their 3G/4G deployments and offload a portion of mobile data traffic to unlicensed spectrum,” said Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave and carrier WiFi at Infonetics.
“Mobile operators by and large have held Wi-Fi at arm’s length, fearing that it could cannibalize their opportunity to derive data revenues,” Webb added. “Now operators are embracing WiFi to offload excess data and enhance the broadband experience for users. For the long-term success of carrier Wi-Fi, though, integration with the mobile network is key.”
Infonetics noted that dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi access points began entering the market last year and are expected to grow rapidly as mobile operators build out their carrier Wi-Fi networks; and that mobile operators are “in the midst of a land grab” and claiming desirable small cell locations first with Wi-Fi APs, then replacing those at a later point with dual-mode APs. China, Indonesia and India are expected to the be strongest drivers of carrier Wi-Fi growth through 2017.
Underscoring the expected Wi-Fi growth abroad, Tessco Technologies division Ventev Wireless Infrastructure announced a distribution agreement with X-TRA Communication, which is a Singapore-based IT provider. X-TRA will sell Ventev’s TerraWave wireless LAN and Wi-Fi infrastructure in the corporate and government markets in Asia-Pacific, and distribute it to other re-sellers as well.
Domestically, Gowex has turned on a free Wi-Fi network of 450 hotspots in San Francisco, the company said. Gowex, headquartered in Spain, already has a network in New York City that launched in March. According to the company, the New York network averages about 20,000 visitors per day, users are 77% male and 41% of visits are from Samsung devices – slightly outstripping Apple’s iPhone at 40.9% of visits. A sign that Samsung is gaining ground on the Apple juggernaut? Perhaps.
