WLAN usage to increase dramatically to more than 200K firms in 1999, Reports Cahners In-Stat Group

Wireless LAN users in the U.S. are expected to increase tenfold over the next five years growing from 2.3 million in 1999 to 23 million in 2003, reports Cahners In-Stat Group. The high-tech market research firm predicts that WLAN usage will become mainstream after the turn of the century.

"New low-end, more cost effective WLAN products are attracting smaller customers for their first networks; and in larger firms, a growing number of remote/branch offices needing networks are considering wireless alternatives because they are portable," said Kneko Burney, director with Cahners In-Stat Group. "Out of the office, new supply chain technologies are connecting increasing numbers of non-administrative workers to corporate resources via wireless supply chain devices. All these forces combine in what we expect to be phenomenal growth in the market." Burney commented on how Cisco's recent acquisition of AeroNet validates the technology and suggests that the Cisco/AeroNet team will address interoperability issues head-on, driving the market forward.

From their research, Cahners In-Stat Group also believes:

• WLAN promises to become the ideal solution for small offices and is expected to meet latent demand in this and other markets, should installation become less technical.
• Network portability (I can take it with me) is expected to be important for smaller offices, including the branch/remote offices of larger firms. This will play a key role in their interest in WLAN solutions over the next five years.
• By 2003, more than 60% of U.S. businesses are expected to connect employees to a basic a network (wired or wireless), with most growth happening at the low end of the market.
• In 1999, roughly 60% of employees in the U.S. access internal networks. By 2003, 80% of these employees are expected to access company resources over an internal network. The report, Growth Markets for WLAN: Hot-desking Meets Plug-In-Play, #GN9904MS, looks into the number of businesses/employees using internal networks, and what percentage use WLAN connectivity.

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