In July 2013, the Wi-Fi market in Japan got a huge boost when the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications allocated the unused 2,500 MHz spectrum to be used to ease the pressure created by the increasing demand for data applications.
This opened the doors for ZTE Corporation that announced in September that it is offering Pocket WiFi SoftBank 203Z and Pocket WiFi (GL09P) 4G routers capable of delivering the world’s fastest mobile data access to consumers and businesses in Japan at speeds of 110 Megabits per second.
Furthermore, both are powered by Qualcomm’s new Gobi chipset that supports LTE Advanced and carrier aggregation technology which is a huge bonus for mobile device users. Mobile Data is one of the fastest growing segments in the Global Carrier Wi-Fi Equipment Market and is a huge reason why the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 33.34 percent for the 2012-2016 period.
Worldwide, carrier Wi-Fi is expected to become a part of service providers’ integral strategy which will make it easier for consumers to access high-speed internet services thereby allowing access data and information with more efficiency. Also, carrier Wi-Fi is an attractive option for service providers to retain existing customers and attract new ones. This is done by implementing more hotspots in an area to provide better connectivity. Carrier-grade Wi-Fi can be adopted in the following ways:
- As a part of a carrier’s heterogeneous network strategy
- As a small cell technology for indoor and outdoor networks
- As a means to improve the mobile broadband user experience and thus support new
- business models
The increasing demand for media-rich and bandwidth-hungry applications is encouraging vendors to re-evaluate their mobile network infrastructure to reduce costs and to improve user experience. Moreover, the number of mobile subscribers is growing exponentially across the globe. In fact, the mobile subscriber base is expected to surpass the global population soon. The increasing adoption of smartphones is another key factor driving the growth of data services.
In the upcoming years, telecom operators around the globe are expected to face a spectrum crunch, leading to network traffic congestion. Though introduction of faster technologies such as 3G and LTE will help the situation, they will have little impact overall as the number of subscribers for bandwidth-intensive data and video applications is increasing exponentially, surpassing the capacity of networks.
In order to support the increasing number of data-supported devices, telecom operators have to provide adequate network infrastructure, which could translate into exorbitant costs if traditional access network nodes are installed.
This surging demand for mobile services also threatens to cause network congestion and a decline in service quality, which increases the chances of customers switching to competitors making mobile bandwidth a precious commodity.
On the other hand, Wi-Fi provides a better and relatively cheaper solution to support the increasing data traffic. To effectively monetize bandwidth, telecom network operators need to be able to measure, monitor and manage network equipment quality, thereby driving demand for carrier Wi-Fi equipment. Continued growth in mobile broadband deployments have already propelled the mobile Wi-Fi market in is expected to continue driving market growth during the forecast period.
For more information, view our 2012-2016 Global Carrier Wi-Fi Equipment Market report.
