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[London, ENGLAND] According to an extensive study by ARC Group in the U.K., worldwide revenues from broadband wireless will be worth US $42 billion in five years time.

One important finding is that the fixed wireless access market will rapidly expand beyond Europe and the United States to all regions of the world. In fact, in 2005, Europe will account for around US $11 billion, the United States US $9 billion, and the rest of the world US $22 billion.

However, growth will not be without its problems, say researchers. Many of the broadband deployments of today are so inflexible they will become the last-mile bottlenecks of tomorrow.

Tony Crabtree, ARC Group analyst and lead author of the report, noted that new media-rich applications are already beginning to appear across the Internet, demanding much higher bandwidth.

"High quality, multi-channel, two-way video is rapidly becoming all pervading and will soon contribute to the demand for higher capacity Internet access, and for networks capable of providing true 'bandwidth on demand,'" said Crabtree.

Crabtree believes that fixed wireless systems will increasingly become a key feature of the access landscape, with lower frequency systems catering for the mass market, and higher frequency systems being deployed at the top end.

ARC Group maintains that broadband wireless offers a unique combination of flexibility and high performance unmatched by other high bandwidth access technologies.

"High speed, high capacity coupled with true flexibility and scalability are the key features that are proving to be attractive to both service providers and end-users. The ability to rapidly deploy networks, whilst avoiding the complexity and restrictions of operating in the local loop, is also a huge plus point," said Crabtree.

The report, from Surrey-based ARC Group, is called "Broadband Access: Opportunities in Fixed Wireless."

Whether broadband wireless will really come to dominate the Internet industry is an issue that will be hotly contested by copper and cable operators. There is, after all, a tendency for researchers to "go native" when studying a particularly intriguing technology and to overrate its potential.

Nonetheless, ARC Group is widely experienced in studying the whole spectrum of Internet technology, and its new report on fixed wireless will provide stimulating reading for anyone seeking business opportunities in this sector.