Continued Consumer Adoption Holds Answer to Success of Hotspots

Public Wi-Fi hotspots continue to garner the attention of a wireless industry searching for answers and opportunities. There is tremendous momentum building, but this should not be mistaken for over-hype, as many players in the market are facing the reality of commercial deployments. Though there exist business models that are working, there continue to be areas that need improvement. Despite these concerns, research firm ABI predicts the revenue generated by this market has the potential to grow by as much as 121% CAAG over the next 5 years.

Some of the issues facing the hotspot industry range from interoperability between hotspot locations to the need for operators and aggregators to acquire more users. "In order for this industry to continue its growth, it has to more clearly communicate the technology's benefits to end-users, in order to generate wide scale adoption," explains Tim Shelton, ABI's Director of Wireless Research.

Selling Wi-Fi services combined with cellular and other operator offerings could help stimulate consumer interest in hotspots. Shelton continues, "There are some terrific opportunities for operators to start bundling services, offering consumers a more data intensive usage model, as well as a more compelling package of benefits and value."

ABI projects that worldwide hotspots will grow to over 160,000 locations by 2007, from approximately 28,000 in 2003. These numbers have a potential of being higher, depending on mainstream consumer adoption."

Posted to the site on 15th July 2003