THE HOTSPOT MARKET continues to surge forward with strong growth in footprint and usage driven by wireless and broadband providers embracing Wi-Fi as both a competitive differentiator, and an enhancement to core services. According to new research from In-Stat, this trend will continue, and usage is expected to increase to nearly 120 billion connects in 2015.
The report Wi-Fi Hotspots: The Mobile Operator’s 3G Offload Alternative found that Asia Pacific has emerged as the preeminent hotspot market, largely due to recent renewed investment in venue deployment. It also predicts that hotspots will continue to be a key factor in mobile operators’ data offload strategy.
Other key findings include:
– Worldwide hotpot venues will increase to over 1 million in 2013;
– Notebooks continue to account for the majority of connects in the hotspot market, however, the rate of smart phone and tablet access is increasing rapidly; and
– While transportation and convention centres only account for a small percent of venues, they account for nearly 30% of total connects.
“The hotspot market is in a continuous state of flux”, said senior analyst Amy Cravens, in the report’s press release. “Now over a decade old, the market is still undergoing significant changes in usage and business models. Wi-Fi hotspots have become a service used to attract customers to other product offerings, rather than a standalone offering. Whether the product is broadband, mobile service, or a cup of coffee, Wi-Fi is being layered on top of core offerings as a competitive differentiator.”
