The survey also highlighted a growing shift in attitudes toward free Wi-Fi. The largest figure ever seen in this annual survey – 56.7% – said they were more confident about investing in public Wi-Fi (either through operators or companies offering products and services) than they were a year ago. In the 2013 study, the figure was just under 52%, which itself was up from 43% in 2012.
These higher levels of confidence will undoubtedly translate into larger and faster deployments, with Wi-Fi rolling out across a wide range of locations. Certain venues continue to dominate the Wi-Fi business due to traffic volume and the criticality of the services. In both 2013 and 2014, large venues such as stadiums and shopping malls were among the biggest drivers of traffic growth, according to over 50% of respondents, followed by travel hubs such as airports (cited by 48%) and in-flight transportation connectivity (41%).
"Carrier Wi-Fi has undergone a revolution in the past year and is now being adopted by a growing number of carriers. The significant progress in live commercial NGH deployments, and in turn, new monetization strategies, provide evidence of the significant improvements in service quality, ease of use, and revenue generation that the technology brings," said Shrikant Shenwai, CEO of the WBA. "This research highlights the growing momentum behind Wi-Fi, which is increasing year after year, driven by the ecosystem that comes together to develop the technology and promote its far-reaching benefits."
"What stands out from this year's survey is a strong emphasis on the importance of the overall customer experience, not just speed and convenience, which have been cited numerous times as a key driver of Wi-Fi adoption. WBA initiatives such as global roaming and Next Generation Hotspot are still being recognized as key technology tools," said Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Maravedis-Rethink.
The survey also found that Wi-Fi roaming will continue to be an important means of extending coverage, especially internationally. In the 2013 survey, 30% of hotspot operators also had roaming agreements to complement their networks, while in 2014, that percentage rose to more than half. Among those surveyed, there was a total base of more than 2.8 million directly operated or managed access points, with an average of 42,000 in deployment. But when roaming was included, carriers could provide a total of 8,850,000 locations between them, or an average of 193,000 each.
Regarding next-generation hotspot (NGH) deployments, last year 44% expected them to be deployed by the end of 2015. By the end of 2016, 31% of those with active NGH plans expected to have deployed. This would indicate an 84% uptake at that stage among those players already making their deployment plans. This revelation comes at a time when significant progress has been made in NGH deployments, which now include 12 live commercial deployments worldwide.
Now that NGH is a commercial reality, monetization is rising to the top of the agenda, and the most dramatic change since last year is that 35% of respondents are implementing roaming as one of their Wi-Fi monetization strategies—charging for roaming access or providing tools and platforms that enable it. That's up rapidly from just 10% in 2013.
The survey, conducted during Q3 2014, had a total of 210 respondents, 45% of whom were operators. Other significant respondent groups were Wi-Fi equipment and device vendors (25%) and consultants/integrators (19%). The majority of responses came from North America (39%) and Europe (26%), followed by Asia Pacific (19%).
