Wireless networking has grown rapidly in popularity around the world. It`s a convenient plug-and-play networking technology without the costs associated with cabling infrastructures.
Now activity in the IEEE 802.11-based Wi-Fi "hot spot" market - wireless LAN services in public places - seems to be snowballing and further enhancing the take up rate of wireless solutions.
The popularity of "hot spot" solutions comes despite some concern in the channel space as to the feasibility of marketing the technology through the channel infrastructure, says Wolfgang Held, 3Com SA`s networking consultant.
"While these concerns have no particular relevance to the local market at the moment, they do bring into focus the ongoing activities of wireless proponents and the evolution of wireless networking," he says.
"Obviously the next step must be to take the wireless network out of the building and into the public arena. This is happening in the US, where `service providers` have set up local wireless networks in hotels, at airports and so on, to provide services to wireless device users.
"If this step is successful in the US it may well motivate other markets - including SA - to follow suit," says Held.
"At the moment, however, there is a question mark over how the provider business models will address the supply chain.
"For example, will they come together in a way that will allow supply-chain members to earn ongoing, worthwhile returns while delivering wireless roaming services at prices low enough to attract users?" he asks.
Held says the popularity of "hot spot" technologies was underlined by a US vendor that recently decided to enter the market - and to attract others to help build its network footprint - by announcing a Hotspot-In-A-Box solution for hotels, airports and other Wi-Fi venues.
Included in the "box" is all the networking equipment needed to install a hot spot, including user billing capabilities and membership in the vendor`s own network of Wi-Fi public access points.
Meanwhile, a US provider of wireless network management and security products traditionally aimed at enterprises, recently rolled out a version of its infrastructure for service providers that want to comprehensively manage multiple hot spots and/or their customers` enterprise wireless LANs from a central location.
"If this scenario were to gain currency in SA, we would need service providers willing to set up wireless networks within a restricted area - such as a shopping mall precinct - and then devise a system for billing wireless device users who entered the wireless network coverage area.
"Obviously this would only be economically viable if there was an economy of scale built into the business plan. In other words, a service provider would have to administer a number of venues - a hotel chain for example."
Already on the US market is a virtual wireless LAN solution aimed at organisations that want to install wireless LANs, perhaps for their own internal use, and then piggyback on the infrastructure to offer revenue-generating services.
"In this scenario," explains Held, "an airline, for example, could run its baggage-handling application across the same infrastructure that its passengers use to connect to the Internet - with virtual LAN capabilities partitioning one set of users from another."
Why are industry players persevering here? Held believes that it has become apparent to many in the industry that the main areas in which business users will be settling down with enough time and space to do real work will require more wireless bandwidth than is currently available on 2.5G and even 3G networks (if and when they arrive in this country).
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