Hotspot market warming up, says analyst

The number of wireless local area network (Lan) hotspot operators, users and venues continues to grow, according to In-Stat/MDR.

The market research firm said that the hotspot market has evolved beyond the initial build-out period of the past four years, and is moving into a more mature stage where growth in the number of venues with hotspots will continue at a more even pace.

Worldwide hotspots are expected to grow from 43,850 in 2003 to over 200,000 in 2008, driven largely by hotel and branded deployments.

Nearly half of business professionals have tried hotspots, and a growing percentage are regular users, according to In-Stat/MDR.

And while providers will have a continued challenge of converting occasional users into regular subscribers, they are finally seeing the revenues that legitimise the market, the research firm added.

The report found that subscribers tend to be business users accessing these networks via laptop computers.

But the researchers predict that use of wireless Lan-enabled handhelds and PDAs will increase over the next 18 months.

Voice will be the next big thing to emerge in the hotspot market, with some trials and limited offerings already underway.

The largest sector of the hotspot market, in terms of the absolute number of venues, will continue to be the cafe market.

But research by analyst IDC published earlier this month suggested that few businesses are interested in using wireless Lan hotspots.

It reported that, while 57.7 per cent of businesses were aware of wireless Lan hotspot services, only eight per cent were 'very interested' in using them.