Wi-Fi persists with steady evolution

Budde says as Wi-Fi is being adopted at a corporate level, resellers can approach businesses to provide their basic Wi-Fi connection too.

“However, apart from the implementation there is very little resellers can add on as people are just using Wi-Fi for its primary purpose,” says Budde.
Ross Chiswell, who currently works as a consultant at AirSpace Technology, started a firm 10 years ago called Integrity Data Systems, which was a distribution company focused purely on wireless technology.

“The company was sold in 2005 and it continued to grow right up to that point. We rode the initial boom from Lucent Technologies and our greatest period of success was between 2000 and 2002, but around 2004 was tough,” Chiswell recalls.

Looking forward Chiswell says the Wi-Fi market will witness another kick in popularity and it is growing steadily at a rate of between 10 and 15 percent year-on-year.

“There is lot of growth, particularity in the residential space, and there is a boom in the government and corporate level too, led by the main brand players wanting to push their technology,” Chiswell says.

The future of Wi-Fi
What does the future hold for Wi-Fi? It would be fair to say Wi-Fi is not in such a dominant position that it can safely be assured a profitable place in the industry. Most emerging technologies are surpassed by more robust, quicker, and more effective versions as time progresses.

However, the industry seems upbeat about Wi-Fi’s future road map and technologies that have come from Wi-Fi.

Kellett says Wi-Fi will always be around and it will be a strong
product in the home networking market, and in the mid-term WiMAX will emerge.

“The other major technology, which is the next stage, is wireless LAN – a big potential area for the channel,” Bradburn says. “In the future, wireless broadband will continue to increase, and the other significant technology will be 802.11.”

In the future we will also see standards evolve with broader enterprise adoption, according to Casey. Laptops will also be used in business more than desktops across Australia, he says.

“If you travel around the US and open up your laptop, you expect
to get Wi-Fi access, but this is not the case Australia at the moment,” says Casey.

Ashton says Wi-Fi is still a short range technology and we will not
get blanket coverage, but major business regions will be Wi-Fi enabled in the future.

“Wi-Fi could lead to a high reduction in community costs, so I am fairly optimistic about Wi-Fi adoption in the future,” says Ashton.

Landfeldt optimistically claims: “Wi-Fi is definitely going to be one of the fundamental components in building infrastructure in the future. A lot of major players are interested in ensuring the technology is of a high standard.

However, the technology in itself will have to change as it has not been built for such wide-scale adoption. It needs to be made more robust.”

Budde adds Wi-Fi will remain in its niche for the time being but there will always be regions that cannot be serviced by cables – and Wi-Fi and WiMAX will find a role there.

It is always difficult to cast a crystal ball prediction over the future of a technology such as Wi-Fi.

Despite continued talk of Wi-Fi still being at an early adopter stage, it has been in use for some time.

The ideas and concepts behind Wi-Fi are more likely to live beyond the actual make-up of the technology.

Wi-Fi will continue to serve its purpose in the short term and this is a clear opportunity for resellers to cash in on end-user demand. The need for a wireless connection will continue to mushroom in the corporate space. However, Wi-Fi is far more likely to be resurrected in a more robust, safer, widespread and durable format.

The message for resellers is to utilise Wi-Fi adoption and the accompanying value-added service and add-on sales – now. This ensures as the wireless landscape develops it will be the Wi-Fi savvy providers who will be best placed to take users into the next generation of wireless technology.

mobility wifi wireless