A new study by ABI Research indicates that Carrier Wi-Fi equipment market will grow to a tune of US$2.2 billion by 2017.
The research done by ABI Research, examines the ecosystem and outlook for carrier Wi-Fi and mobile offload.
Carrier Wi-Fi alludes to a Wi-Fi connection that is provided purely by mobile phone networks. This enables subscribers to surf in given hot-spots provided by their network.
The company said in a press release that: “The majority of the total market in 2011 was accounted for by Cisco, Ruckus Wireless, and Ericsson/BelAir, and as traditional mobile infrastructure vendors add Wi-Fi to their portfolios, these early market share rankings will fluctuate.”
“We believe that with standardization initiatives well under way, like Hotspot 2.0 and the almost universal inclusion of Wi-Fi in every smartphone, PC, and tablet being built today, carrier controlled Wi-Fi is expected to see wide-scale adoption, especially in markets like North America, Japan, and South Korea,” Nick Marshall, principal analyst, mobile networks for ABI said.
Ruckus Wireless Sub-Saharan Africa, a company based in the US but with offices in South Africa, has made great strides in availing Wi-Fi across the country. Last month the company embarked on having a seamless experience for customers, by connecting all their hotspots.
Informa Telecoms and Media reported that the global hotspots number would grow from 1.3 to 5.8 million by 2015.
