Europe Sweden : According to a new study by Infonetics Research, by 2011 overall 3G data service adoption across small, medium, and large organizations in North America will reach 17%, and adoption of mobile WiMAX will reach 11%.

The study, User Plans for Wireless LANs and Mobility: North America 2007, also shows that wireless LANs will be adopted by 73% of North American organizations by 2011, and wireless mesh by 11%.

“Mobility is increasingly viewed by user organizations as a fundamental part of their communications strategy and the wireless networks or services they use are an intrinsic part of the overall network,” said Richard Webb, wireless analyst at Infonetics Research, and lead author of the report. “Wireless is no longer seen as a separate overlaid and unmanaged wild frontier.”

“The breadth and penetration of wireless LAN and mobile data applications grows between now and 2009,” added Webb. “Notable amongst these are videoconferencing (currently used by 25% of respondents in 2007, growing to 34% in 2009), video surveillance (24% to 32%) and wireless VoIP (18% to 29%). Organizations are definitely using their wireless networks and services for more than email and web browsing.”

Study Highlights

• Expenditures for WLAN access points and switches drop by 2009, while expenditures on 3G and WiMAX services increase, as mobility beyond the organization’s campus grows in importance
• 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 use of VoIP over wireless LAN doubles from 12% in 2007 to 25% by 2009; hosted VoIP and VoIP over cellular also exhibit healthy growth from modest beginnings
• There is a shift away from distributed to centralized intelligence in WLAN architecture; respondents prefer the ability to centrally view and manage their wireless networks
• 49% have a policy defining how employees use WLAN, WiMAX, or 2.5G/3G data services; security and personal usage top the list of criteria defined by such policies

Infonetics’ adoption rates for wireless LAN and data services using WiMAX, wireless mesh, 2.5G, and 3G are based on data derived from 450 interviews with 200 small, 150 medium, and 100 large organizations 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 across a broad range of verticals about their use of and plans for wireless LANs, wireless mesh, WiMAX, and cellular data services.