Empty Highway

The other possible scenario is that the Wi-Fi network is integrated in the next 5 years but people are not interested in using the available resources.

In 2005, the economic condition of the world is not going well. Since so many countries uses US $ for their reserve, while the US $ weakens, the countries’ reserves also decreases. The telecom companies still have to increase its network but with this bad economic condition, the telecoms companies try to look for other ways that do not require a lot of money.

Wi-Fi seems to be the answer of this searching. The cost of setting up Wi-Fi is much less expensive than doing it for wire infrastructure. Moreover, with the weak economy condition, wireless can be the cheap solution for the customers who want to have new internet connection.

Wi-Fi is also so flexible to be used that people can use internet in every places with Wi-Fi connection. The telecom companies forecast that people’s mobilization will increase significantly in the future that people will love this technology.

Their other consideration is that the media devices companies, such as PC, laptop, PDA, cell phone companies will invest in their R&D department for Wi-Fi technology. When so many available devices supported Wi-Fi technology, telecom companies assume that public will be attempted to update their devices with the new technology devices.

Therefore, the telecom companies decide to invest their money in the Wi-Fi business. Taking into account that there are some free wireless networks, which were built and run by some volunteer, in some cities, such as in Leiden, the telecom companies try to negotiate with these organizations to buy their available network. The reason is that it is cheaper and faster to buy the available network than to start everything from zero. The negotiation is successful since the volunteer are also too busy and tired to serve the customers freely that they choose to sell the whole network.

However, the devices companies, especially PDA and cell phone companies, have different consideration. With the slow economic growth, the companies decide not to continue or at least postpone the projects that have not given them big profit. Since the Wi-Fi’s future is not yet clear and there are still some lacks in the development of the product featuring Wi-Fi. For example, the duration time of active time of devices is so short when users use Wi-Fi.

On the other hand, in 2006, the telecom companies invest their money to start building the Wi-Fi network since the telecom companies also have to increase the Wi-Fi network. The plan is that every year the companies can increase the Wi-Fi network to be widen by 30%. The telecom companies even make agreement to connect their network to build an integrated Wi-Fi network.

Even though, there is no signal that the devices companies will launch the products supported Wi-Fi in the short time, the telecom companies still believe that these products will still be lauched not in the long time. Hence, the telecom companies continue leveraging their Wi-Fi network.

In 2007 and 2008, the Wi-Fi network is very wide but there are not many devices backed Wi-Fi technology. The available devices have high price and most of them are still not well connected between each other. Therefore, the media devices is still fragmented. What is worse, the customers also feel reluctant to use Wi-Fi due to its bad reliability and security. The telecom companies start doubting their forecasting about Wi-Fi. Hence, as they have invested a lot of money in this project, they cannot directly stop this project. If the project stops, the companies will lose all of their expensive investment.

Finally, in 2009, the telecom companies realize that their investment decision in Wi-Fi is a mistake. They do not get their Return On Investment (ROI), they even lost a lot of money from their huge investment in this project. They start trying to sell their network to the market and do a lot of saving within their companies. However, there are no customers want to buy this failed project.

Consequently, in 2010, there is a lot of telecommunication bankrupt and the executives of these companies are arrested to take the responsibility for their wrong investment decision. The economic is shaking with this scandal. The central banks in each country in the world have to restructure the telecommunication companies in their countries.

In conclusion, the huge investment from the telecom companies leaves an integrated Wi-Fi network but the media devices is still fragmented.