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この調査レポートは、広域のWi-Fiの市場が促進する主要な促進要因を特定し分析している。調査対象としているのは、スプリント、TモバイルUSAなどのキャリア、ベンダ、MSOやCLECなどの広域Wi-Fiのネットワークを有する企業、再販業者やアグリゲータなどである。
A decade ago, one of the hottest topics at wireless trade shows was whether Wi-Fi would kill 3G or the other way around. It turns out that not only is there plenty of room in the marketplace for both, but they also complement each other quite well. The most recent example is 3G offload, where wireless carriers encourage or occasionally require customers to temporarily switch to Wi-Fi for bandwidth-intensive tasks, such as downloading a video file.
But whether used for 3G offload or enabling new services, Wi-Fi is still subject to the laws of physics and regulators. That means Wi-Fi must be carefully engineered to provide a good user experience – a challenge partly because it does not have spectrum licenses to help protect against interference. Another regulatory factor is the country-by-country variation in how many channels are allowed in a particular band, which affects both capacity and the ability to work around interference.
Some Wi-Fi challenges cannot be overcome by a single company. A prime example is roaming, where the Wi-Fi Alliance is among the organizations working to make it easier for users to connect to Wi-Fi networks other than just the one owned by their primary service provider. Another example is the upcoming 3GPP Release 10, which enables simultaneous connections to LTE and Wi-Fi networks, so that devices can quickly and automatically switch between the two based on factors such as cost and bandwidth.
As Wi-Fi coverage expands into more areas and improves QoS, it becomes more viable for supporting machine-to-machine (M2M) communications – a burgeoning market over the long term. The technology is also highly competitive from a price standpoint, both in terms of chipsets and the cost of delivering service. Yet with few exceptions, Wi-Fi is an also-ran in the M2M market. While many service providers and vendors interviewed for this report agree that M2M is a major and missed opportunity, saying and doing are two different things. Therefore we believe it is unlikely that Wi-Fi will ever take its place alongside cellular in M2M, as it does in other sectors.
Wide-area Wi-Fi is a cost-effective, relatively fast way for wireless carriers and other companies to deliver broadband services to consumers and business users, but these benefits can come at a price. For example, Wi-Fi is less expensive than cellular because it does not require spectrum licenses; but the lack of licenses makes Wi-Fi more vulnerable to interference, which saps capacity and undermines QoS.
More Wi-Fi Means More QoS Challenges for Operators identifies and analyzes key issues driving the market for wide-area Wi-Fi. This analysis is based on input from carriers including Sprint and T-Mobile USA and a representative sampling of vendors with solutions that address one or more aspects of wide-area Wi-Fi. The report examines the types of companies deploying wide-area Wi-Fi networks, including MSOs and CLECs, as well as the types of companies reselling and aggregating Wi-Fi service.
Concerns about quality have not stymied the Wi-Fi market. Just about every metric continues to trend up, simply because Wi-Fi continues to meet marketplace needs despite the arrival of other technologies that are faster or better. In a sense, Wi-Fi is like SMS: Both were developed more than a quarter century ago, but flourish today because they have found the right niches. Wi-Fi has significantly lower service-delivery costs than 3G and 4G. Exactly how much lower depends on what is being compared, such as the cost of a cellular macro base station versus the dozens of Wi-Fi APs required to achieve the same coverage footprint.
Companies mentioned in this report include: Arris Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRS); AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T); BelAir Networks Inc.; Boingo Wireless Inc.; BT Group plc (LSE: BT.A) (NYSE: BT); China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL); IntelliNet Technologies Inc.; iPass Inc. (Nasdaq: IPAS); Meru Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: MERU); Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MSI); PCTEL Inc. (Nasdaq: PCTI); Powerwave Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: PWAV); Ruckus Wireless Inc.; Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S); T-Mobile USA Inc., a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT); Towerstream Corp. (Nasdaq: TWER); Tropos Networks Inc.; Xirrus Inc.; and Wavion Ltd.
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