[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.