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Municipal Wi-Fi Will Extend its Global Service Area to 30,000+ Square Miles by 2012

In 2004, there were only 520 square miles of networked municipal Wi-Fi. However, over the next several years, ABI Research forecasts a nearly sixty-fold increase to more than 30,000 square miles.

At present, the United States leads in municipal Wi-Fi deployments – but Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Western Europe are undergoing expansion with respect to municipal Wi-Fi infrastructure and applications.

Varying levels of maturity and acceptance exist within this market, spread across global regions and individual countries. The following is a snapshot of some major variations, according to recent analysis from ABI Research:

  • North America: Leads in deployments; but in many cases, the region employs the wrong business plan of free consumer access and free infrastructure; consolidating incumbent service providers view municipal Wi-Fi as a competitive threat.
  • Europe: Mobile-oriented rather than PC-oriented; incumbents initially resisted municipal Wi-Fi but now recognize in-building limitations and are incorporating it within service bundles for nomadic broadband Internet access, or as a way to compete out of region.
  • Asia-Pacific: Status varies widely, but rapid uptake in advanced countries such as South Korea are finding innovative applications and developing new end-user devices to leverage municipal Wi-Fi.
  • Emerging Regions: Equipment remains cost-prohibitive; there is interest in the technology, but compared with more basic services such as electricity, funding is a challenge; these regions are likely to be late adopters.

ABI Research vice president and research director Stan Schatt believes that there are key financial benefits that should be included within the municipal Wi-Fi business case. “One example is wireless surveillance systems, which will help prevent possible terrorist attacks, decrease overall crime, improve traffic flow, and even boost tourism by creating stable communities,” he explains.

Once technology, business, and cost issues are resolved, nations will benefit from this simple and low-cost broadband Internet access technology, consequently broadening the range of the networked service. [ABI Research]

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