Download our at-a-glance overview of the WBA's new Industry Report on Global Trends in Public Wi-Fi. Please feel free to distribute to the widest possible audience!

1. Key
findings
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Global Trends in Public Wi-Fi
WBA Wi-Fi Industry Report November 2013
PUBLIC Wi-Fi MOVES TO HEART OF CARRIER STRATEGIES
Reasons for the
increased confidence
In a survey of the ecosystem, 52% are more
confident about investing in public Wi-Fi
than they were a year ago
18.8%
More cautious
about investing
Increased willingness to invest
reflects:
• Maturing of standards such as
Passpoint and NGH
51.8%
19.4%
• Wider range of business cases
More confident
about investing
No change
in attitude
• Increased strategic interest of
fixed and mobile carriers
MANY OBSTACLES WILL BE ADDRESSED BY STANDARDS WORK
How operators plan to build their carrier Wi-Fi footprint
41.6%
Use Wi-Fi
aggregators for
national coverage &
services
32.0%
64.5%
Use Wi-Fi
aggregators for
international coverage
& services
Build own
carrier-grade Wi-Fi
in selected areas
43.7%
Consider
acquiring one or
more WISPs
16.8%
20.3%
Partner with other
service providers
such as cable
companies or WISPs
1.5%
Other
Use so-called crowd
sourced hotspots to
leverage free & open
Wi-Fi services
• Standards for interoperability and roaming are vital to address issues and boost confidence
• Roaming is very important to the business case, e.g. WBA’s ICP program
• Over 60% of carriers will deploy their own hotspots in certain areas
• But aggregators and roaming partners will be vital to achieve broad coverage
Source: WBA/MaRe ecosystem survey October 2013 unless otherwise stated. © 2013 WBA – Wireless Broadband Alliance Ltd. All rights reserved.
Confidence in investing in
public Wi-Fi is rising sharply
NEW BUSINESS CASES DRIVE INVESTMENT
Monetization strategies which are
being implemented in 2013-2014
Mobile data offload remains important to
MNOs and their partners, but the business
case is moving well beyond just offload.
Other important emerging
monetization strategies
• Location aware services
• Enterprise services
• Metrozones
Deployment of hotspots for
MNO or MSO networks
10.5m
9.6m
10.5 million hotspots a year
by 2018, directly or with partners.
6.5m
8.3m
7.9m
7.1m
Source: Maravedis-Rethink forecast
MNOs and MSOs will deploy
5.2m
Cumulative base of carrier Wi-Fi
locations 55 million by 2018
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Wi-Fi is about total customer
experience, not just offload
2018
Other key factors
Improving customer experience to attract and
retain customers is the most important reason
to adopt a carrier Wi-Fi strategy.
2017
• Creating new revenues
• Reducing costs via offload
• Improving indoor coverage
Key reasons to include carrier Wi-Fi services in a portfolio
Somewhat
important
5.9%
Important
33.9%
Not
important
3.5%
6.9%
Very
important
4.7%
7.6%
12.6%
43.7%
23.5%
32.4%
15.3%
56.7%
Improve customer
experience and
retention
29.2%
31.6%
22.2%
27.0%
36.8%
Reduce network
costs by offloading
data
41.5%
36.5%
Generate new
revenue streams
(advertising,
analytics, M2M)
Improve indoor
coverage
28.5%
Other
Some obstacles remain to deploying carrier Wi-Fi and NGH
The perceived obstacles increasingly focus on commercial not technical concerns, as standards address the latter.
Greatest barrier to deploying carrier
Wi-Fi and NGH is uncertainty about
the business model
Other barriers
• Need to ensure QoS
• Technology roadmap uncertainty
• Site issues
• Device availability
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