Skip to main content

A Mixed Outlook for Municipal Wi-Fi Networks

The Wi-Fi mesh networking equipment market had over 100 percent shipment growth in 2006, and will have over 90 percent growth in 2007, according to In-Stat.

Strong growth will continue for Wi-Fi mesh access points (APs) for the next several years, as shipments grow more than three-fold between 2006 and 2011, the high-tech market research firm says.

In-stat believes that most of that growth however will come between 2006 and 2008, with growth rates rapidly declining starting in 2009.

"Cities will continue to deploy municipal mesh networks, but the rate of new deployments after 2008 will slow, due to concerns over the business model," says Daryl Schoolar, In-Stat analyst.

"Growth in the enterprise (large business) market, plus the need to replace previously deployed nodes, will help offset the slowdown in shipments to new municipal networks."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

- Manufacturer revenues will grow through 2011, but not as fast as shipments due to expected cost-per-node declines.

- Supporting government applications are needed for a successful municipal network deployment, as consumer access in most cases is not enough to sustain the network by itself.

- WiMAX and cellular will both negatively impact the market as these services go after the same nomadic users that public Wi-Fi networks target.

Popular posts from this blog

Banking as a Service Gains New Momentum

The BaaS model has been adopted across a wide range of industries due to its ability to streamline financial processes for non-banks and foster innovation. BaaS has several industry-specific use cases, where it creates new revenue streams. Banking as a Service (BaaS) is rapidly emerging as a growth market, allowing non-bank businesses to integrate banking services into their core products and online platforms. As defined by Juniper Research, BaaS is "the delivery and integration of digital banking services by licensed banks, directly into the products of non-banking businesses, commonly through the use of APIs." BaaS Market Development The core idea is that licensed banks can rent out their regulated financial infrastructure through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to third-party Fintechs and other interested companies. This enables those organizations to offer banking capabilities like payment processing, account management, and debit or credit card issuance without