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Follow UsThe year
2004-05 was a watershed year for the WLAN equipment market in India. In many
ways wireless entered the main
stream with both enterprise and SOHO/home users. According to VOICE&DATA
estimates, the Indian WLAN equipment market was valued at Rs. 82.5 crore in
2004-05, as against Rs. 51.5 crore in 2003-04.
However, it
could not register the kind of growth that it had achieved in 2003-04 in terms
of value as equipment prices dropped substantially.
Although a
number of factors got together to drive upward, the movement in the WLAN
equipment market in 2004-05, the most significant was the drop in equipment
prices. The per user cost of deploying WLAN in enterprises slipped by around 50
per cent in 2004-05. This was complimented by the fall in price of laptops and
Internet bandwidth, and the expansion of network connectivity. The availability
of other Wi-Fi enabled gadgets like PDAs and phones also aided the adoption of
WLAN.
The market
also benefited from the developments on the regulatory front. The government
completely delicensed the 2.4 GHz band for indoor use of low power applications
and technologies. The use of low power indoor systems in 5.15 — 5.35 GHz and
5.725—5.875 GHz bands was delicensed in January 2005.
Vendors and
distributors aligned their energies to create awareness about wireless. Channel
education and training also helped the market grow. They took their road shows
and training programmes to smaller cities and towns. For instance, Rashi
Peripherals, a distributor of Netgear in India, organized 37 training sessions
on wireless and went to places like Ranchi, Guwahati and Raipur. Such
programmes helped explode the myth that wireless was expensive.
Three segments
emerged in the market — the hotspots primarily driven by ISPs and Telcos, the
enterprises and the home/SOHO segment.
Hotspot
deployment found favour with telecom operators and ISPs such as BSNL, MTNL,
Sify, Dishnet, Bharti and Tata Teleservices. Even though usage remained low in
most hotspots like Internet cafes, restaurants, and other public places, hotels
saw a significant surge in Wi-Fi usage among their guests and other visitors.
It is estimated that India had around 500 hotspots by March 31, 2005. This was
in contrast to 2003-04 when there weren't any significant deployments except by
Tata Teleservices and Sify.
There was a
noticeable growth in enterprise networks across verticals both in terms of
deployment of new networks and expansion of existing networks. WLAN adoption
grew as more and more enterprises got aware of the benefits of wireless, and
their apprehensions with regard to security of wireless networks were suitably
addressed by the vendors. While wireless was largely deployed and used as a
complimentary network, many enterprises only deployed wireless in their new
office locations as they found it cheap and convenient. The other important
factor in the growing adoption of wireless was the increase in notebook
penetration on account of a fall in notebook prices. Hotels, educational
institutes, IT-BPO companies were the important verticals in this segment.
Top WLAN Players | |||
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V&D | CyberMedia Research |
The past year
also saw the birth of the home-SOHO segment in India. Even though in small
numbers, Wi-Fi gained traction among home users. While drop in price of
wireless routers turned out to be favorable, Wi-Fi in homes also got a push
from telcos offering broadband services. Bharti was offering Wi-Fi services
over digital subscriber lines in homes in many areas.
There was a
shift in the pattern of wireless usage as well. As the deployment moved from
802.11b to 802.11g which offered higher throughput (54 Mbps), and many WLAN
equipment now offered enhanced security and management features, many
enterprises started using it for various other applications including voice
besides Internet access and email. This resulted in many vendors shifting their
focus to selling "Wi-Fi Solutions" as against selling boxes
particularly in the large enterprise, BPO, MNC and hotspot segments.
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Also, WLAN
moved beyond buildings and campuses as many enterprises started using it for
building-to-building connectivity using wireless antennas and bridges. Even
though not many enterprises preferred wireless to fibre for connecting two
buildings within the city, quite a few did, as it was easy to deploy and manage
besides being more cost effective.
While Cisco,
with its focus on the high end of the market, continued to lead the market in
value-terms, D-Link was the market leader in volume terms. The year 2004-05 was
significant for Netgear as the vendor gained tremendous acceptability in both
the enterprise and home-SOHO space. It's products gained a lot of mind share
and volumes as the three distributors promoted it extensively across India. HCL
Peripherals (Netmax brand) also emerged as a key vendor last year. The other
significant WLAN equipment vendors in the market were Linksys, Proxim, Dax,
Brovis, Compex, Multitech, Allied Telesyn, and 3Com. Pronto Networks was an
important OSS-BSS solution provider to hotspots. There were a few Chinese
brands also in the market. However, they failed to make any impact, as they
could not offer any significant price advantage.
WLAN market is
likely to continue on the growth path in the current year. While enterprise and
hotspot segments would continue to fuel growth, home-SOHO segment is likely to
emerge as a key buyer of WLAN equipment. Wi-Fi adoption in homes is likely to
spread on account of the spread of broadband networks and falling laptop
prices. On the other hand, various hotspot providers plan to add around 1000
hotspots in the current year. Both in the enterprise and hotspot segments,
buyers would increase focus on WLAN solutions with enhanced security and
network management features. It is also likely that more and more vendors would
make their presence felt in the market especially in the lower end of the
market.
Source: Voice&Data