From 2016 to 5G: Wireless Broadband Alliance Industry Report (FREE REPORT)
From 2016 to 5G: Wireless Broadband Alliance Industry Report (FREE REPORT)
Last year, the key theme of the WBA annual report was the start of the transition from best effort to carrier-grade Wi-Fi networks. This year, that transition is very visibly under way and the ecosystem is starting to plan for the next five years. In the near term, wider-scale, carrier-grade deployments are enabling new business models such as smart cities and enterprise services. Looking ahead to 2020, the next wave of change is being considered, including the role Wi-Fi and the WBA will play in shaping 5G.
The enabler of all that will be the availability of a truly carrier-grade platform. Adoption of advances such as 802.11ac and Passpoint/Next Generation Hotspot, are gathering pace. Most of the elements of a carrier platform –security, quality of service, high availability, strong coverage and data rates, integration with operators’ OSS/BSS platforms and their other networks – are now in place.
That makes Wi-Fi a strong platform in a far wider range of business scenarios, and that, in turn, is driving investment, both by traditional players like pure-play and MSO operators, and by new service providers from the over-the-top or IoT communities.