Wi-Fi represents significant opportunity for bundling of services: SeaBoard report

Bell Canada is riding the potentially lucrative crest of ubiquitous Wi-Fi access as the technology represents a substantial opportunity for ILECs to offer new bundling packages and a new "amenity" to buildings and enterprises, concludes a new report from the SeaBoard Group. The research firm points to offerings from Verizon Communications Inc. and Bell Canada as prime examples of things to come in the future. Bell Canada unveiled its foray into the Wi-Fi space with the introduction of the Bell AccessZone trial last year (RoW, Dec. 20/02). The pilot project was to have ended in March 2003, but was extended until the end of this year to allow the telco to continue to gather valuable information on user habits (RoW, July 9/03). Verizon, borrowing from Bell Canada, lit up 1,000 hotspots at payphone locations throughout Manhattan and offers free access to existing high-speed customers. Canada’s largest telephone service provider led the way in using payphones, the report notes, adding Bell Canada sees something larger in the hotspot market. "We can only surmise that it is aware of the hidden gold that the antiquated service represents - a cornerstone of a new bundling plan that will both keep the highest yield customers loyal to Bell and will tempt cable customers to return to the fold," reads the report, Canadians Cut their Wires: Wi-Fi takes to the Streets. The Seaboard Group report notes that Bell Canada and other telcos investigating Wi-Fi opportunities aren’t trying to dominate the Wi-Fi market, but are seeking to broaden their appeal to enterprise customers. The business market has been largely hesitant to adopt Wi-Fi because of a lack of understanding of the technology and security issues, among others. (Canada’s four national wireless operators recently struck an agreement to collaborate on standards for Wi-Fi network roaming and other issues. See news brief in this issue.) "This is not Bell Canada falling over itself to dominate the Internet hotspot market in an ephemeral pursuit of theoretical revenues. Bell appears to recognize that Wi-Fi access may well be to public spaces in the early part of the 21st century what air conditioning was in the middle of the last century - just another amenity to be provided to position a building or an enterprise relative to other buildings or enterprises," reads the report, referring to the Bell AccessZone trial. It continues, "Bell is seeking to be a partner to businesses in offering its expertise in network design and deployment, and offering its reach into the various communities to extend a ‘campus’ network into spaces that were traditionally public." Enterprise adoption to increase With this in mind, the importance of systems integrators and outsourcing partners will rise, according to the research firm, because they will be able to dedicate significant resources to the deployment of Wi-Fi systems. It is for these reasons that there will be greater enterprise adoption of Wi-Fi in the next few years, the SeaBoard Group writes. "With the growing use of the technology, and the upcoming innovations that will happen, companies will require integration solutions. Enterprises will adopt in large numbers and they will want to make sure they reap the benefits that Wi-Fi can provide yet at the same time ensure that they don’t compromise the integrity and security of their internal networks," the report concludes.

Wi-Fi represents significant opportunity for bundling of services: SeaBoard report

News | 08/26/2003 4:00 am EDT

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