Battle of the wireless acronyms

Citation

(2002), "Battle of the wireless acronyms", Work Study, Vol. 51 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2002.07951daf.001

Battle of the wireless acronyms

Battle of the wireless acronyms

WLAN and other alternative wireless technologies are not a threat to the 3G operators. Instead they can help increase both revenues and customer satisfaction for the mobile operators. According to leading wireless analyst Northstream, mobile operators are the most likely to benefit from a co-existence between WLAN and 3G.

"In our view the idea that WLAN would replace 3G is simply not true. Replacing 3G with WLAN would be like attaching a motor to a bicycle and calling it a motor cycle", says Tommy Ljunggren, co-founder of Northstream.

According to the Northstream analysis, WLAN and 3G represent two distinctive technologies addressing different needs. Office WLAN is already widely adopted in the US market. Europe is trailing behind, but is catching up fast, and so is the rest of the world. Public WLAN – the so-called 3G killer, on the other hand, is a completely different matter. This is not a system, but a technology targeting a particular user segment requiring relatively low bandwidth.

Deployed according to a carefully moulded strategy, however, WLAN can work as an important complement to 3G, offering wireless Internet indoors in airports, cafés and other hot spots for the business user in particular.

The existing WLAN market and technology are still immature with mostly small companies working with limited resources, coverage and customer relations. Existing mobile operators are consequently best positioned to take advantage of public WLAN, as it dovetails well with their traditional business:

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  Parts of their existing customer base can be targeted.

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  Billing and customer management can easily be reused.

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  They often control established and well-known brands.

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  Mobile operators control transmission capacity, which means cheaper deployment.

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  Organisational requirements are similar.

"Public WLAN in combination with 3G and GPRS can increase both customer satisfaction and total usage, raising revenues for mobile operators. Public WLAN is definitely not a 3G killer, but has great potential as a 3G helper", says Tommy Ljunggren.

For more information please visit Northstream at: http://www.northstream.se