March 22, 2006

In February 2006, municipal Wi-Fi networks covered less than 1,500 square miles globally.

Now, according to Wireless Mesh Networking (a new report released by ABI Research) by 2010, the total area covered will soar to over 126,000 square miles.

To put these latest numbers more into perspective, this means that by 2010 municipal Wi-Fi networks worldwide will cover an area larger than the country of Poland, or if you prefer the state of New Mexico!

The report also projects that the bulk of the new Wi-Fi growth will occur in North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

To better serve these rapidly-growing networks, more than one million wireless mesh routers will be manufactured and shipped in 2010.

The revenues from those wireless router shipments are expected to exceed $1.2 billion.

According to the report, four significant trends are energizing this emerging market:

1) Many local governments wish to deploy municipal broadband networks for public safety — as well as increased government efficiency.

2) Alternative ISPs see mesh networking as enabling their own broadband service facilities to compete with incumbent service providers.

3) Wireless mesh networking technology is seen as an efficient and cost-effective means of providing broadband access to underserved areas. This will be particularly true as the municipal Wi-Fi trend moves from larger cities into smaller towns.

4) Potentially, wireless mesh networking technology can serve as a competitive tool for cable operators.

Legal impediments to municipal Wi-Fi deployment are also falling.

While municipalities initially faced regulatory restriction in terms of local government funding or their roles as broadband service network operators, that is less the case today, because the networks are increasingly provided by a third-party operator, who owns and operates the network.

Source: eMarketer