According to a new survey of cable industry providers and vendors, more than half of responding operators have plans to roll out carrier-grade Wi-Fi to their customers.
The survey makes clear that not only are customers looking to get top-grade Wi-Fi speeds and service, operators are dedicated to providing it for them. The survey predicts that by 2017, carrier-grade Wi-Fi hotspots will outnumber “best effort” Wi-Fi hotspots.
“Increased Operator confidence in Carrier grade Wi-Fi technology has led to a surge in the growth of deployments over the past 12 months and set a trend that will to continue. Within 5 years there will be as much as a 70% rise in the number of Carrier-grade public Wi-Fi hotspots deployed, vastly outnumbering current best effort,” said Shrikant Shenwai, CEO of the WBA, in a statement.
The shift to carrier-grade is especially important, as the Internet of Things becomes more widely embraced by more manufacturers and users.
“This year’s survey has demonstrated a growing momentum within the ecosystem away from talking about the benefits of Carrier-grade to actually realizing its potential in high-growth areas such as IoT and Smart Cities via deployment,” said Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Maravedis-Rethink, who did the survey. “Next Generation Hotspot and Passpoint technology have been fundamental enablers in the transition to Carrier-grade Wi-Fi and as investment increases so the potential returns will grow as new revenue streams develop.”