Guess it may pay to be an ocean away these days:
Strategis Group Says The fixed wireless access market in Europe is set to take a large piece of the broadband pie
The fixed wireless access (FWA) market in Europe is set to take a large piece of the broadband pie, according to a new report from The Strategis Group. Due largely to a scarcity of viable broadband alternatives, the fixed wireless market in the region will reach $8.6 billion in annual revenues by 2006, says the report European Fixed Wireless Access Markets. The business sector will remain the main revenue generator for FWA operators for some time, as operators select high revenue customers from urban business districts. The Strategis Group will hold a conference call on Thursday, April 5th, at 3 pm UK (10am EST) to discuss findings of the study.
London, April 2, 2001 -The fixed wireless access (FWA) market in Europe is set to take a large piece of the broadband pie, according to a new report from The Strategis Group. Due largely to a scarcity of viable broadband alternatives, the fixed wireless market in the region will reach $8.6 billion in annual revenues by 2006, says the report European Fixed Wireless Access Markets. The business sector will remain the main revenue generator for FWA operators for some time, as operators select high revenue customers from urban business districts.
European FWA operator business plans have changed significantly since the failure of Ionica's wireless local loop (WLL) strategy. "Today's FWA operators plan to operate very differently," states Jake Saunders, The Strategis Group's European Director. "FWA operators are 'cherry-picking' the key telecoms customers to minimize infrastructure spend and maximize telecoms revenues, making full use of the technology's key advantages: high scalability and quick deployment."
The European FWA market will continue to prime itself until late 2003/early 2004, at which time The Strategis Group believes many of the supply-side bottlenecks, such as expensive customer equipment, will have been resolved. FWA will then start to exploit the demand for always-on, reliable and high-bandwidth services. Still, business markets will continue to remain the wireless "sweet spot" - the main 15 European markets will generate more than US$6.2 billion in business service revenue, as opposed to US$2.4 billion in residential service revenue, in 2006.
"While the development of the broadband market is often described as a competition among access technologies, it is actually more a race to the customer through any broadband access technology available," says Diane de Polignac, Telecoms Consultant. To the extent that fiber and cable assets are scarce, however, a tremendous opportunity exists for wireless access. Detailed in the study, many emerging and established carriers have stepped up to exploit that niche. |
