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

How WLAN Transforms Industrial Automation

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...