WBA Annual Industry Report 2017/18

This year’s annual industry survey from the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) comes at a highly significant time for the wireless ecosystem. As user demands for fast, reliable, affordable wireless data continue to rise, service providers are also considering how to expand and transform their business models with new use cases. As Wi-Fi and other technologies evolve, there is the opportunity to connect a vast array of devices, vehicles, sensors and buildings, to support applications which have scarcely been possible before. Many of these discussions about new connected services and business cases are taking place in the context of the next generation of wireless technologies, 5G. Like most stakeholders, the WBA believes that 5G will, unlike previous generations of standards, be more than a cellular radio definition. Instead, it will be a broad platform which integrates multiple radio access technologies (RATs) in unlicensed, shared and licensed spectrum. Current and future evolutions of Wi-Fi, and other unlicensed spectrum technologies such as low power wide area networks (LPWANs), will play a crucial role in extending high quality, high speed, low latency wireless connectivity to many new users and use cases, including the connection of huge numbers of machines and sensors.