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3G Represents an Inflection Point for Enterprise Mobility

18th October , 2004

US : Approximately 50 million mobile workers exist in the United States. These mobile workers need remote access to a myriad of applications, such as e-mail, corporate intranets, CRM and field service applications, and legacy systems. Enterprise decision-makers understand the growing requirement for wireless data solutions within their organizations: The Yankee Group 2004 Corporate Wireless Survey indicates that 55 percent of large U.S. businesses will deploy a wireless wide-area data solution by mid-2006.

The inflection point for enterprise mobility is the emergence of third-generation wireless networks capable of delivering on the promise of high-speed wireless data access. The user experience for mobile workers improves considerably as wide-area wireless data speeds exceed 144 Kbps, allowing greater access to mission-critical applications (see Exhibit 1). This has positive implications on mobile application infrastructure requirements, ease of deployment and total solution costs.

Although higher data rates are crucial in reducing the overall complexity of mobile solutions, speed is not an elixir. While enterprises reveal they are ready to adopt wireless solutions, they also indicate that barriers to adoption remain, in addition to insufficient wireless network data speeds, such as security, cost constraints and lack of widespread coverage. The corporate-minded wireless carrier must assist enterprises by providing out-of-the-box applications (such as e-mail and remote laptop connectivity) or by partnering with third-party technology providers to solve mobile computing challenges.

Verizon Wireless introduced 3G to the U.S. market with its October 2003 commercial launch of CDMA 1X EV-DO (often abbreviated as EV-DO) in Washington, D.C., and San Diego. Globally, the dominant third-generation evolutionary track is GSM to UMTS (also referred to as the air interface WCDMA), which will claim almost 80 percent of global subscribers by 2007. AT&T Wireless brings 3G capabilities to the market with its four-city, July 2004 commercial launch of a universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS). This indicates a strong commitment to reduce wireless data complexity and enable enterprises to deliver cost-efficient and effective mobility solutions.

In this report, the Yankee Group analyzes enterprise mobility requirements, looking at application demand and the network capabilities needed to support these applications. Additionally, we explore the impact of 3G wireless data capabilities on enterprise mobility implementations. Further, we discuss the evolution toward 3G capabilities and examine the service delivery infrastructure required to enable enterprises to leverage the capabilities of high-speed network technologies.

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