WLAN Net surfing to proliferate by 2007

CHICAGO: Most Americans today surf the Internet on computers connected to a
cable or a telephone line, but many of them will access the Internet wirelessly
in airports, shopping malls and hotels by 2007, a study released on Thursday
said.

The report by global telecommunications and new media research firm, Analysys,
which is based in Britain, estimates that more than 21 million Americans will
use public wireless local area networks, or LANs, by 2007.

This compares with about 600,000 wireless LAN users in 2002. The rising
adoption of wireless LAN will be due in part to the growing number of devices
such as personal digital assistants and laptops that will be equipped with the
capability, according to the study.

Consumers can take advantage of high-speed wireless local area networks as
long as they are in a wireless-enabled location and have a card in their devices
to let them receive the wireless signals. The study's co-author, Monica Paolini,
said she expects "hot spots" -- where users can surf the Internet via
a wireless local area network -- to grow to 41,000 by 2007 from 3,700 this year.

The study predicted that the public wireless local area network market will
claim a 25 per cent share of anticipated mobile data revenue by 2007. About 8
per cent of all mobile users will use the networks.

It also said traditional wireless operators could lose more than 7 per cent
of total data revenue to public wireless local area network services in 2007 if
they ignore the business. At the same time, however, the study said wireless
local area network operators must still resolve some issues, most notably the
ability to provide wide coverage for potential users.

Analysys suggested that operators should pursue roaming agreements with each
other to minimize the cost of deploying access points in every hot spot. It also
said operators need to offer better location information, network detection
software, appropriate security and reasonable pricing before the market will
increase significantly.

(C) Reuters Limited.