Asia-Pacific Wi-Fi growth outstrips US

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Wireless LAN hot-spot growth in Asia-Pacific is outpacing that of North America, according to a report by analysts Allied Business Intelligence (ABI). Hot spots -- zones of wireless LAN coverage in a public area -- are being eyed by many service providers as a key area of revenue and together with 3G (third generation) cellular networks, will form the fabric of anywhere, anytime personal computing. The growth is based on growth of 55 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in Asia-Pacific, compared with 45 percent in North America, said ABI analyst Tim Shelton. While North America leads in the number of hot spots, with 12,400 already in place, Asia-Pacific will overtake in 2008, he told CNETAsia. "The reason Asia will outpace North America is that the region is a late adopter, and a lot of these hot spot providers that serve Asia are very big," he said. "Right now, it's hard for us to gauge truth versus reality, but these are very reputable companies, like KT Corp from Korea. There are some big projections coming out of Asia for Wi-Fi," he said. Unlike analysts who believe that consumer demand for hot spots will never match supply, Shelton is more optimistic, believing that a chronic oversupply won't happen if important factors such as roaming and security are in place. But the most crucial component -- a base of users large enough to sustain the hot-spot market -- will come about only if large cellular operators get in the game, he said. "Cellular operators have the opportunity to bundle services. That's a real benefit. There's also billing. To encourage consumption, you need to have one bill," he said. This is already happening in the US, with hot spot aggregator Boingo and telco giant AT&T unveiling consolidated billing and roaming plans, he said. The coming year will be crucial for the future of the hot spot business, he believes. If cellular providers don't make good on promised hot-spot deployment plans by 2005, 3G (third generation mobile data) will have the playing field to itself, he said. "But it would surprise me if that was the outcome, given the investment in hot spots. We have momentum in home networking and enterprise Wi-Fi. It's a hard thing to stop," he said. Globally, there will be 200,000 hot spots by 2008, compared with 28,000 this year, according to Shelton's report. In Asia, ambitious hot spot deployment and roaming agreements have recently been announced by large telcoms providers. In March, five firms from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and China signed the Wireless Broadband Alliance, agreeing to deploy roaming and consolidated billing between their networks. When ready, subscribers will have access to 8,600 hot spots, including 17 international airports. This figure is expected to grow to over 20,000 hot spots by the end of the year, said the participants. Korea will see the bulk of the new installations. Signing the agreement were Singapore's StarHub, Korea Telecom, China Netcom, Maxis from Malaysia and Telstra from Australia. Click here to see a map of the UK's Wi-Fi hot spots.

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