The study, User Plans for Wireless LANs and Mobility: North America 2006, also shows that WiMAX will be adopted by nearly 20% and wireless mesh by 12% of North American organizations by 2010.
"Mobility is becoming an increasingly significant part of overall corporate strategy, and user organizations want to arm their employees with a range of connectivity options whilst on the move, either on or off campus," said Richard Webb, senior analyst at Infonetics Research and lead author of the report.
The study shows a strong trend toward convergence. "Organizations are looking toward a next generation enterprise network in which wired and wireless, voice and data, and indoor and outdoor network uses are converged. Many will take advantage of a combination of wireless broadband infrastructure and services plus cellular to enable this new mobility model," Webb continued.
"At the same time, they are beginning to utilize their wireless assets for supporting more complex applications beyond basic e-mail and Web browsing, such as supply chain management, RFID tagging, voice and even video over IP. Organizations will need to become more active in planning for capacity as they scale up the number of wireless users and applications," added Webb.
Study Highlights
-- Employee demand tops the list of wireless LAN adoption drivers, rated highly by 50% of respondents
-- Laptops are by far the most popular device for accessing the WLAN, but WiFi VoIP handsets -- especially dual-mode WiFi/cellular handsets -- show strong growth
-- The strongest driver for deploying VoWLAN is convergence of the voice and data networks, considered a driver by over half of the study's respondents
-- There is a discernible shift away from distributed to centralized intelligence in WLAN architecture
-- 46% have a wireless policy that defines how employees can use the WLAN, WiMAX, or 2.5G/3G data services available to them
-- Security concerns top the list of reasons why organizations have not adopted WLANs, with 63% of non-adopters citing this as an important factor
Infonetics' adoption rates for wireless LAN and data services using WiMAX, wireless mesh, 2.5G, and 3G are based on interviews with 200 small, 150 medium, and 100 large organizations (450 total) in North America, completed at the same time as the interviews for the main study. The main study is based on in-depth interviews with 240 organizations about their use of and plans for wireless LANs, wireless mesh, WiMAX, and cellular data services, and includes analysis on 5 verticals (education, manufacturing, government, business services, and retail).
Study excerpts can be downloaded at www.info.infonetics.com.
