Study Shows Enterprise Demand for WLANs Increasing

Frost & Sullivan Enterprise Wireless Communications Markets Tuesday released results of their latest analysis of the WLAN market. The analysis revealed the wireless LANS were particularly beneficial at this point to businesses needing to disseminate instant approval, advice, or information for mobile employees.

Revenue from enterprise telephone equipment sales in North America were reported to have reached $217.2 million in 2000. It is estimated that sales will increase to $557.9 million by 2007, according to Frost & Sullivan analysts.

Because wireless infrastructure investments are costly in comparison to wireline, analysts believe that there will be a resultant rise in companies attempting to send voice (VoIP) and data over the same network. This would reduce the total cost of ownership of the network and result in management efficiencies from integrated IT administration.

At present, the primary end-users of WLAN technologies are in the retail, hospitality, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors. It is expected, of course, that any business with a highly mobile workforce will be considering the technology in the near future. However, two major hindrances to widespread adoption remain. First, there is still quite a low level of awareness by end-users, according to Frost & Sullivan. Second, the comparable wireline extension costs roughly $300, while the wireless connection costs around $1,000 per user.