The US mobile industry is set to benefit from the rapid adoption of wireless local area networks (WLANs), with the number of frequent WLAN users in North America growing from 4.2 million in 2003 to more than 31 million in 2007, according to new figures from Gartner.
WLAN systems allow mobile users to connect to local networks – such as an employee’s company’s network – without requiring a physical plug-in point. Areas where these connections are possible have been dubbed ‘hot-spots’.
In the UK, BT already has around 66 of these hot-spots, with a further 15 provided by Swisscom, according to separate figures from Broadband Markets.
“As more and more applications are built requiring broadband connections, the possibility of more than 100,000 hot-spots within the next five years [in the US] is an innovation that cannot come too soon,” said Ken Dulaney, vice president and research director for Gartner. “However, due to the need to wait until a large enough population is equipped with WLAN capability, profitability for hot spot providers will be stalled for three or four years.”
Wireless networks can be used in schools and higher education to offer new teaching methods, as well as by corporate industry, says the report. Gartner has been predicting the strong growth of the WLAN sector for some time now (see Gartner Predicts Bright Future for WLAN Dealers).
