Global In-Building Wireless Deployments to Increase 20%

• Posted: Wednesday, December 13, 2006
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: Wireless Services

Customers’ dependence on wireless communications and their adoption of high-bandwidth 3G cellular services are the primary drivers of the global growth of in-building wireless systems that extend and create wireless coverage indoors. According to a new study from ABI Research, deployments of these systems are expected to result in revenues in excess of $3.6 billion by 2011.

Says ABI Research analyst Dan Shey, “People spend a significant amount of time indoors and not surprisingly they also expect indoor access from their outdoor wireless service. But indoor coverage does not just satisfy a need for service convenience; it is also used to improve business productivity.” As a result, commercial buildings will be a major focus of the in-building wireless systems industry, affecting carriers, businesses, building owners, equipment manufacturers and solutions providers.

Deployments and revenues of in-building wireless systems will be dominated by distributed antenna systems, commanding over 60% of the deployments and over 75% of the equipment revenues. These systems are most economical for buildings larger than 100,000 square feet, a size where coverage and signal level capacity from outdoor networks into buildings begin to fall significantly.

For buildings smaller than 100,000 square feet, repeaters are the primary solution; however repeater shipment growth will slow due to replacement by picocells and femtocells. According to Shey, “Repeaters are a cost effective way to provide coverage inside buildings but they do not add capacity, which will be needed as 3G services usage increases. New picocells and femtocells which can be backhauled via an IP connection are a cost effective way to add capacity and coverage.”

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