Public access wireless local area networks (PWLANs) will not have a dramatic impact on the European telecommunications market, according to a new study by The Yankee Group.
The report,
Public Access WLAN in Europe: A Technology in Search of a Business Case?, acknowledges the progress made in developing WLANs but questions whether the infrastructure is in place to enable services to reach a wide audience.
“WLAN technology is now relatively mature, and has already been widely deployed in European enterprises,” said Declan Lonergan, director of European wireless research and consulting. “What is not mature, however, is the public access WLAN service environment. Some fundamental challenges remain to be resolved before we can start to see significant growth in user numbers.”
In particular, the report highlights deficiencies in service roaming, security and billing. It also claims that clarification is required regarding PWLAN service models and the the service provider business case.
The Yankee Group predicts that annual turnover from European PWLAN services will reach $1.8 billion in 2007, by which time there will be 7.7 million users of the technology. However, the report confounds fears that PWLAN solutions will eat into 3G revenues.
“The differences that exist in the core value propositions offered by these two technologies should lead to the introduction of complementary, rather than competing, services.” said Lonergan.
