According to Strategy Analytics, the strong evolution of cellular-only markets will dramatically slow the global adoption of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC). By 2010 there will be 500 million cellular-only users generating three times the voice revenues of their FMC counterparts. With major carriers such as BT, Korea Telecom and BellSouth deploying FMC services, convergence is back on the agenda and the specter of WiFi or Bluetooth destabilizing in-building cellular revenue flows again looms large. However, handset prices and availability will represent the biggest barrier to FMC adoption. "The 'voice goes mobile' mantra of the cellular industry is now a reality rather than a mission statement." comments David Kerr, Vice President, Strategy Analytics' Global Wireless Practice. "Cellular already accounts for 60 percent of the world's access lines, one third of all voice minutes and one half of all voice revenues, with 10 percent of homes relying on only a mobile phone for voice. FMC providers will have to work hard to turn this tide as players like Vodafone and O2 fine tune their wireless-only solutions."
The industrial sector is on the eve of a wireless transformation, driven by an urgent demand for greater network capacity, reliability, and deterministic performance. Historically, manufacturers and mission-critical operations have relied on wired networks — favoring their predictability — because spectrum congestion in legacy 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands limited confidence in wireless for operational technology (OT) environments. However, with the introduction and rapid adoption of the 6GHz spectrum, compounded by significant advances in Wi-Fi standards, industrial facilities are now poised to embrace wireless LANs as the backbone for automation and digital innovation. Industrial WLAN Market Development Recent research from ABI Research forecasts that over 70 percent of industrial-grade wireless LAN access points (WLAN APs) shipped in 2030 will support the 6GHz band. This is a leap from 2 percent in 2023, highlighting a rapid and profound technological shift. The market for ruggedized indust...