21 Million Wireless LAN Users in USA by 2007, Says Analysys.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 2002

More than 21 million Americans will be using public wireless local area networks (WLANs) in 2007, attracted by the cheap and superfast remote Internet access provided in airports, shopping malls, coffee bars and hotels, according to Public Wireless LAN Access: US Market Forecasts 2002-2007.

This new report is published this week by Analysys, the global adviser on telecoms and new media (www.analysys.com).

Figure: Potential public WLAN users in the USA, 2002-2007 (Source: Analysys Research, 2002) - available to journalists on request.

Public WLAN services enable users to hook up their laptops and PDAs to their Internet service provider (ISP) or company intranet at speeds of up to 11Mbit/s. "The appeal of these services means that the number of hot-spot locations in the US will grow from 3700 this year to 41,000 by 2007," says report co-author, Monica Paolini, who is based in Analysys's San Francisco office. "This will in turn generate over $3 billion in service revenues."

A major impetus for the development of this market is the industry-wide adoption of a common technical platform based on the IEEE 802.11b standard. A rapidly growing number of devices (forecast to top 91 million in the next five years), such as PDAs and laptops, are now being shipped with cards already installed that can make use of public WLAN networks.

However, there are still some issues to be resolved, according to the report, notably the ability of public WLAN operators to provide a wide coverage for potential users. These operators need to pursue roaming agreements with each other to minimize the cost of deploying access gateways in every possible hot-spot location.

"For the market to accelerate as we expect, it's imperative for service providers to offer better location information and network detection software as part of well-presented service propositions with appropriate security and pricing," adds Monica Paolini.

One of the biggest questions raised by these new services is the impact they will have on cellular operators as they attempt to develop new fast data services. By 2007, Analysys predicts that the public WLAN market will equate to about 25% of mobile data service revenues and could cannibalize up to 7% of cellular data operator revenues in the US.

Written by Monica Paolini and Ross Pow, the report presents revenue forecasts to 2007 for public WLAN services in the US and reviews the strategies and business cases of different participants in the market, including cellular operators, fixed line operators and new entrants.

The report is available at:(pound)650/$975 for single-user electronic access. For more information, telephone Analysys Research on [phone] or email [e-mail].