The future of WiFi is bright
During 2014, WiFi technology celebrated its 15th Birthday, and it seems that nothing seems to stop this technology to grow faster and faster. According to a recent study from Maravedis rethink, by the end of 2014 there were more than 45 Million public hot-spots deployed worldwide. Even more impressive is the forecast over the next four years, where they expect global hot spot numbers to grow to over 340 million; almost one WiFi hot spot for every twenty people on the planet by 2018.But that's not all, WiFi is also the connectivity of choice among users as 78% of mobile data goes over WiFi. Besides by 2018, 70% of new consumer electronic devices will have in built WiFi support.
One of the main drivers of WiFi as a connectivity of choice is related to consumer behavior on mobile consumption. 85% of our mobile usage happens indoor, where WiFi can provide a cost effective solution for enhancing Indoor coverage. Currently this is an area where mobile operators struggle, specially in high rise buildings.
Is also interesting to notice that WiFi grow continues to be messy and fragmented. In fact more than 50% of all commercial hot spots are owned by brands not related to telecommunications. This has resulted in a exponential organic growth since is a technology not regulated and easy to deploy compared to 3G or 4G networks.
WiFi will just go faster and faster
The new generation of Wi-Fi, 802.11ac is aggressively entering the market and promising blazing speeds of Gbps meeting users needs to build services on Wi-Fi for the incoming years. Carrier Wifi 820.11ac is expected to reach market by 2018. Several telecommunications operators like Orange are working together with IEEE to improve WiFi technology for outside indoor areas and also when many users are connected to the same hot spots. Both are challenges with the current WiFi standard..
Nevertheless, with the arise of Internet of things more capacity will be needed. Ericsson latest mobility report expects 35 Billions connected devices by 2020. By that time anything that needs a mobile data connection will have one, Cars, Machines, wearables, thermostats, TVs, clocks, projectors, medical equipment, sensors security devices, and cameras to name but a few.
This is also the reason why Wi-fi research is still pushing their boundaries further. A new WiFi standard, called 802.11ad, stands to become the fastest Wi-Fi ever—but at the price of reduced range. It’s called 802.11ad. Unlike previous WiFi that operated in the 2.4 GHz or the 5 GHz band, 802.11ad operates above the 60 GHz band. This enable it to achieve speeds of up to 9 Gbps, which is 60 times faster than today.
Also, there is research ongoing for operation below 1 GHz to support longer-range, very-low-power connectivity.frequency bands that can deliver just the right kind of connectio under Wi-Fi Alliance certification programs based on 802.11ah and 802.11af.
Is not only Data but Voice: The emergence of Wifi Calling
Early Voice over Wifi (VoWiFi) action came from american operators like T-Mobile and Sprint , which were using it to improve coverage indoors, nevertheless with more than 20 new telecom operators launches and more than 60 different smartphone supporting WiFi calling including Apple, Samsung and Sony, WiFi calling is becoming a standard feature on mobile phones.
WiFi calling is a different from other OTT communication tools like Skype. It's built in directly into the phone's dialer, so users don't need to open up an app or connect to a service to use it. They can set it as the default way of placing a call, or if they lose phone signal, it will automatically switch to WiFi calling.
Because the service is built-in, that also means that users don't need to add contacts to a service as you do with Skype.
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