WIRELESS 4Th MOST POPULAR ACCESS TECHNOLOGY

Written by Adam Gosling

Wednesday, 01 March 2006

Recent research by telco research outfit Market Clarity has found that wireless broadband is now the fourth most popular access technology. However, in troubling news for the industry, Share Evans VEO of Market Clarity pointed out at the Wireless Australia conference today that the number of ISPs offering wireless connectivity has fallen dramatically in the past few months. After hitting a high over the past two years, reaching 140 ISP providers, wireless connectivity is now offered by less than 100. A survey conducted by Evans’ organisation, Market Clarity, found that the technology has embedded itself as a mainstream Internet access technology trailing only dial-up, DSL and ISDN. However, the sharp fall in providers causes concerns for the industry, said Evans. “The DSL segment of the broadband market has an average of more than 8,000 subscribers per provider while wireless services today have around 890 subscribers per provider,” said Evans. “While this is not a problem for ISPs who have their infrastructure costs spread across a large subscriber base using many different technologies, it presents a challenge for ISPs for which wireless is the main game. A lot of growth is still needed before the wireless sector can have confidence in its future,” she concludes. Market Clarity surveyed 512 ISPs and found that “Wireless access remains strong wherever distance puts a limit on the DSL footprint. This, combined with the impact of the Federal Government’s Broadband Connect program, means that there are now 70 ISPs offering wireless plans in rural and regional Australia, compared to 38 in metropolitan areas.” Evans said that the shift in the industry seems related to the business model being used by the wireless ISPs. “Most ISPs run a business model based on a wide variety of access technologies, such as dial-up, ADSL, and ISDN in addition to wireless,” said Evans. “Where wireless access was not the ISP’s main source of connectivity, ISPs seemed more likely to discontinue wireless plans if they didn’t see sufficient take-up.” Market Clarity Related news items Seven In Unwired Takeover Bid -26/09/2007 Major Players To Test WiMAX Interoperability -26/09/2007 First Windows 6 Palm In Australia -12/09/2007 Telstra Launches Another Coonan Attack -12/09/2007 Semi-Rugged With Grunt -05/09/2007 Newer news items WiMAX Demo Sends Strong Signal -21/06/2006 Cebit: A Wireless World -08/05/2006 Wagga To Get WiMax Trial -04/04/2006 BigPond Drops Price As Unwired Adds Pressure -03/04/2006 More Wireless Broadband For Melbourne -02/04/2006 Older news items WIMAX STANDARD FINALLY RATIFIED -08/12/2005 Big Play For BigAir -28/11/2005 BLACKBERRY FLAVOURED NOKIAs -01/08/2005 WIMAX STARTS INTEROPERABLITY TESTING -13/07/2005 MOBILES TO GET TOP LEVEL DOMAIN -11/07/2005 Tag This Now: