Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wi-Fi Presents Major Challenge to Asia's Wireless Carriers

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 13:43:27 -0500

Wi-Fi Presents Major Challenge to Asia's Wireless Carriers

The use of Wi-Fi wireless access to the Internet is growing rapidly in Asia,
where there are about 10,000 hot spots. The technology is simple and cheap to
deploy and fixed-line phone companies are capitalizing on its potential. This
presents a formidable challenge for Asia's cell phone carriers. They have
committed to spending hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy third-generation
wireless networks that offer high-speed Internet services. These carriers usually
make most of their money from heavily used parts of their networks - usually in
city centers, exactly where Wi-Fi providers area deploying their services. The
cost of a Wi-Fi base station is about $70, compared with the $50,000 to
$250,000 cost of a cellular network base station. According to a study from
Pyramid Research, by spending $10 million, Hong Kong's Pacific Century
Cyberworks (PCCW) could cover about 28 percent of the city by 2011, and
break even by 2 009, while charging three to five cents a minute for Wi-Fi
Internet access. Cell phone networks currently have two advantages - ubiquity
and mobility. Wi-Fi networks don't typically work when users are in motion --
driving, for example. However, innovations in Wi-Fi technology also are
occurring rapidly.

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