Note To Carriers: Don't Miss WLAN Wave

[Dukedog]

BYLINE: By Rebecca Diercks; Rebecca Diercks is director of wireless research at In-Stat/MDR, a sister company to Wireless Internet Magazine.

BODY:
Public wireless local area networks--should cellular carriers fear or embrace the technology? Initially, most wireless providers viewed public WLANs as a competitive threat; however, the picture is changing and many now see the technology as complementary to cellular and PCS. In the United States, VoiceStream Wireless Corp. loudly articulated this message when it announced a few months back that it had purchased MobileStar Network Corp.'s assets. Since that time, Sprint PCS invested in Boingo Wireless and Nextel Communications Inc. began to test RadioFrame's technology, which would allow it to offer a combined WLAN/iDEN service.
Wireless service providers must in fact make sure not to miss this technology wave in anticipation of next-generation wide area networks--this technology is available today. Selling both WLAN and wireless wide area network services would allow cellular carriers to provide moderate data rates over a very wide area and high data rates when in close proximity to a public hot spot. Deploying such systems makes sense from a network perspective as well: Cellular systems could potentially offload much of their data and voice traffic on WLAN systems in areas of high user density.


In-Stat/MDR recently surveyed its panel of wireless Internet users to determine their interest in and opinions about public WLAN services. Note that the panelists tend to be early adopters. A total of 239 wireless Internet users responded to the survey. In-Stat/MDR found significant interest in the services, as well as willingness to pay for them.
All of the respondents were at least somewhat interested in using WLANs in public places and 19 percent say that they already use these services. When given a choice of several types of public WLAN service providers, the majority of respondents said they would prefer to purchase and be billed for these services by their cellular phone service companies. Granted, these findings are based on results by wireless Internet early adopters, which might prejudice responses in favor of mobile carriers. However, In-Stat/MDR believes these companies are distinctively positioned to be leading providers, most notably because of their existing subscriber bases and billing expertise.

Mobile Internet users are not only interested in these services, they also are willing to pay for them: on average, $10 to $39 per month. Overwhelmingly, users would prefer to be charged one flat monthly fee for WLAN access. By offering WLAN services, cellular carriers can increase their average revenue per user--their ultimate goal, particularly in this challenging economic environment.

Wireless Internet adopters envision using the service at three primary places--airports, hotels and convention centers, which are top spots for business travelers. Yet these demands expose a potential weakness of WLAN services: coverage. Without roaming agreements, users will have to set up WLAN access parameters at each network, which would be burdensome. End-users underscore this belief by identifying geographic coverage as the key potential barrier to WLAN adoption.

If public WLAN services were widely available and affordable, the majority of wireless Internet users say they would use the service a minimum of once per week. Moreover, one-third of mobile Internet users believe they would use the service daily.

Importantly, the majority of respondents expect they would actually spend more time using their mobile Internet services if they were able to use WLANs in public places. This finding reinforces In-Stat/MDR's view that WLAN technology is in fact not Public Enemy No. 1, but rather an important comrade of the mobile Internet.

Survey Methodology

Rebecca Diercks

Data for this article was collected via a brief Internet survey. Participants--members of In-Stat/MDR's Technology Adoption Panel--were e-mailed an invitation to participate in a Web-based survey conducted Feb. 19-22. Respondents were selected because they access the Internet using a mobile phone or other wireless device. In-Stat/MDR's Technology Adoption Panel is a dynamic online group of thousands of technology users and decision-makers interested in contributing opinions and insights about technology usage and issues in the workplace.