Wireless LAN market continues to surge

Two new reports indicate growing prevalence of wireless networks

The wireless LAN market continues to enjoy double-digit growth and is now responsible for the lion’s share of infrastructure spending among large enterprises.

That is the verdict of two reports out this week: one from market analyst Dell’Oro and the other from vendor Motorola.

According to Dell’Oro, the enterprise wireless LAN market powered up 15 per cent year on year in the third quarter as strong demand for 802.11n-based access points boosted spending.

Dell’Oro forecast that the market would continue to grow in 2009 as enterprises opt for higher performance 802.11n equipment.

Ben Kwan, analyst of wireless LAN research at Dell’Oro, said: “The combination of twice the speed, twice the distance, but less than twice the price of legacy 802.11a/g equipment is making 802.11n an increasingly attractive option for enterprises to provide network connectivity to their users.”

Meanwhile, Motorola released European research claiming that wireless infrastructure spending has overtaken wired in the majority of large enterprises.

The vendor’s findings were based on research carried out by Vanson Bourne, which quizzed 400 European IT directors with more than 1,000 employees.

The research also found that more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of firms now have some form of wireless infrastructure in place, while almost a fifth are ‘mostly’ or ‘completely’ wireless.

Marco Landi, acting vice president of Motorola Enterprise Mobility Business EMEA, said: “With budgets being squeezed, companies in every industry sector are looking for ways to become more efficient and mobility gives businesses the means to be more responsive. It is therefore no surprise that the trend is towards all wireless networks.”