Industry Related-Answers

• Is Wi-fi complimentary or direct competition to the 3-G services offered by the cellular comapnies?

• There was much hype abput the 3G services offered by cellular companies in order to allow users to access data at a speed of around 384 kbps.In fact many cellular service providers paid billion of dollars to obtain the licence for 3G. After the advent of Wi-Fi there are doubts whether the 3G industry will be washed out or can Wi-Fi and 3G co-exist. Like we know to operate in the Wi-Fi frequency range which is 2.5 Ghz and 5 Ghz there is no licence fees which need to be paid. The data transmission rates for Wi-Fi are much higher than 3G , typically 11 mbps and 54 mbps. The cost of Wi-fi equipments is approaching almost zero. It is very cheap to set up a Wi-Fi hot spot as compared to the 3G network. Keeping all this in mind Wi-Fi is a challenge for 3G. bur 3G has some advantages of providing a seamless roaming facility within cities and countries which might be a problem with Wi-Fi. So do Wi-Fi and cellular companies have tie ups to provide seamless roaming to the customers and thus benefit from each others. In fact a lot of companies have already started to do this Kyocera has made a tie up with Boingo and is develoing a Wi-Fi and 3g enabled mobile handset. Lucent has also made similar arrangements. This means that it is more like to see mobile handsets with Wi-Fi in future rather than Laptops with 3G capabilities. All said and done 3G cellular companies will either have to tie up with Wi-Fi companies or set up there own network in order to take advantage of the Wi-Fi 802.11 standard or else they have a difficult future ahead.

Refer the following links for usefull information:

• http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1577551
• http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/columns/article.php/1500581
• http://itc.mit.edu/itel/docs/2002/LehrMcKnight_WiFi_vs_3G.pdf
• http://www.boingo.com/pr/pr98.html

• Will the use of Voice over Wi-Fi effect the landline business of Telcos? Can WiFi provide last mile connectivity?

• The traditional way of offering braodband was restricted to phone companies and cable companies. But with the cheap option of Wi-Fi which is replacing Telcos and cable companies as the last mile option to provide broadband coverage Telecom companies are losing revenues. Most telecom companies have realized this and have started provideing wireless services through hot spots. For example KPN which provided landline services and then began with cellular has acquired Hub-Hop , the major provider of Hot Spots. This shows the intention of most telecom companies which are under threat from Wi-Fi providers to enter the Wi-Fi space either through acquisitions or through starting their own services. This will further improve the popularity of Wi-fi services irrespective of whether it is provided from Telcos or purely Wi-Fi providers. In fact Telcos have an advantage that they already have an infrastructure which is set up, they just need to offer additional Wi-Fi services to gain significant advantage. Additionally if Wi-Fi is available at home then the landline business might be effected because then people either have the option to call from their PC's or with increasing use of Cell phones with inbuilt Wi-Fi capabilities the traditional landline might just vanish in the future. so it can be said that there might be a less number of landline connections for the Telcos but they can counter this by increased revenues from Wi-Fi business i.e if they decide to enter it.

• http://www.soundingboardmag.com/articles/321coverstory.html

• Can Wi-Fi offer the value add which will benefit the service industries like Hotels, Hospitals etc to attract more customers?

• With competition intensifying in the hospitality industry, companies are looking for additional sources of providing value added services to customers. Internet access is a key factor to attract the business customers to Hotels. And hotels were aware of this fact and have provided internet access to their customers by the traditional or you can say the most common way of running a cable or putting a DSL modem in each room. This typically costed the hotels $285 t0 $ 450 per room. Also this did not allow access to the internet say in the lobby area or at the pool side, in the gymnasium and other places. Hotels can set up Wi-Fi in every room at a much lower cost as compared to wired networks and provide access in other areas like lobby, pool side etc. This can be an excellent opportunity for new hotels who can gain a competitive advantage vis-a-vis other hotels.The hotels have another option of providing Wi-Fi access to their customers, they can tie up with Wi-Fi aggregators like Boingo and Ipass and provide internet access. For the customer it will not be the hotel who will be charging them but the network aggregator who will charge its usual fee. With the benefits that this will offer of not shifting networks and assured security the customers will not mind paying fees to the network administrators. Even in hospitals the use of Wifi is growing substantially. The wifi frequency does not interfere with hospital equipments. And also most of the hospitals that are so busy these days and patients and the persons accompanying them have to wait hours to meet the doctor are employing wifi networks for the convenience of the patients and their attendants to access the internet. Hospital is also using wireless technologies mainly RFID's to track doctors, nurses, patients and important hospital equipments.Beside hospitals and fast food indutries like Mc Donalds, Starbucks are also now offering Wifi internet access at their locations.

• http://www.soundingboardmag.com/articles/321coverstory.html
• http://www.broadbandproperties.com/2004%20issues/Feb04-Articles/3featurearticle2-04.pdf

• Will the traditional cable and LAN equipment industry be benifitted or will they lose market share with the success of Wi-Fi?
• Will Wi-Fi further strengthen the market position and product portfolio of giants like Microsoft and Intel?