INDUSTRY VIEWPOINT - Why wireless isn't necessarily more
Tony Crowley, UK sales director of Lan vendor SMC, disputes claims made at Comdex that wireless Lans will take the market by storm.
Wireless Lans are all the rage - again. Although the technology has been around for more than 10 years, a panel of Lan pundits and vendors at the Spring Comdex show in Chicago declared themselves confident that wireless technology is finally set to take off.
Some argued that home users, keen to interact with multi-user leisure software applications, would drive demand. Others said the growth of mobile business users, combined with office users wanting to do away with cumbersome wires, would push prices down.
Either way, the panel agreed the market was set to boom in the next two years. So is the channel really to believe that it's now or never for mass market acceptance of wireless Lans?
The answer for anyone involved in selling networking systems has to be that the potential benefits of wireless technologies will only see take-up in specialist markets. The retail environment is an obvious candidate, where mobility is vital for shop floor point-of-sale cash tills. Warehousing and the use of automated 'picking' is another area that relies on mobility and real time data updates.
There is also an advantage for the home sector, with perhaps the business laptop user connecting to their home PC and printer. But the point of this kind of personal network is that users aren't required to move large amounts of data around it - bandwidth needs are low and the technology required is no great leap forward.
For anyone looking to sell higher margin systems into the SME sector, however, the bandwidth issue is key. The increased availability of high-speed network products and value-added services over cable and fibre provides a stark contrast to the lack of flexibility allowed by wireless Lans.
With applications and business demand constantly testing the boundaries of network bandwidth, it's wise to go with a technology that can be upgraded.
As for security issues, pundits tend to ignore the difficulties and costs involved in firewalling radio Lans. Any firm looking to secure the transmission of its Lan traffic would probably need to block out and screen the entire building.
Perhaps the most compelling argument for a wired future comes from the television industry. For decades it was accepted that the radio transmission of analogue signals was the de facto method of broadcasting TV data.
Today, our roads are in a constant state of upheaval as the cable firms rush to install the cable TV network.
The reason is not based purely on television content and the nature of its delivery, but on the profit to be made from the convergence of TV, telephone and internet services to the home. In other words, the market is being driven by value-added services.
But the profit for resellers is still in network hardware. SMEs, for example, are creating huge demand for 10/100 Ethernet switches. The infrastructure is already in place for them, and the cable/fibre-based networks have the capacity to cope with demands for increased bandwidth, as well as provide scope for further value added services.
Wireless may be the buzzword at Comdex but, for the mid-term at least, the money will remain elsewhere for this particular channel.