Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

European Hotspots: Generating $2.45 Billion by 2009

San Diego, CA, April 8 /PRWeb/ -- There will be 174,000 hotspots in Europe by 2009 and these will generate $2.45 billion in both subscriber and venue oriented revenues, according to a recently released report by emerging wireless research firm, ON World Inc.

"Hotspots are a way for European fixed line operators to extend their broadband networks and for mobile operators to finally profit from their 3G investments," according to Colin Carroll, a senior research analyst for ON World. The biggest revenue opportunity however is for venue owners who will generate additional product oriented sales from their locations. As venue owners become more educated about the benefits, ON World believes there will be an increasing number of cafés, health clubs, hotels, retails stores and malls that will offer hotspot services for free.

A Prime Environment for Hotspots

The European environment is nearly ideal for offering public broadband access due to its concentrated population, high mobile phone penetration, growing broadband adoption, cafe culture and centralized telecom infrastructure. User adoption will start slowly due to high access costs, unavailability of multi-mode cell/wifi phones, limited roaming and because managed network operators are still educating the market at the local level.

ON World believes these limitations are short term and 2004 will see the launch of several multi-mode cell/Wi-Fi phones that will provide network operators with new ways to extend their broadband reach and create compelling new services.

By 2009, ON World predicts that 15 percent of all hotspot users in Europe will be frequent users, defined as those who use hotspots more than four times per month, up from 3 percent in 2003. Frequent users will increasingly opt for "all-you-can-eat" hotspot subscriptions that will likely be part of a bundled service. Remaining hotspot users include a variety of revenue models including an increasing number of users who will access hotspots for free. European hotspot subscription revenues are projected to be $898 million in 2009.

Land Grab Moving Fast

Carroll notes that the land grab phase of the hotspot rollout in Europe is quickly closing and as WiFi devices proliferate, the next phase of WiFi enabled services will soon arrive. The rapid hotspot deployment phase of the next three to five years will be supported and driven by operational service support (OSS) and hotspot access providers such as AirPath, Nomadix and Pronto Networks as well as clearinghouses/aggregators such as iPass, GRIC and Trustive. ON World believes Wi-Fi enabled devices will become widespread by the end of 2007 and this will result in increasing demand for hotspot oriented multimedia services, voice over wireless LAN solutions and seamless roaming solutions by companies such as Appear Networks, BridgePort Networks, Kineto Wireless, Megisto Networks and WeRoam.

As with all things in Europe, there are identifiable differences from country to country.
Hotspot numbers, costs, adoption rates and usage figures differ widely, and some of these findings are quite surprising. According to ON World, the leading countries by overall hotspot deployments are the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Norway, Finland and Spain. Portugal has shown rapid hotspot deployments recently and has almost as many as Spain. Denmark's TDC just announced that they have deployed 400 hotspots at Statoil, McDonald's, and Baresso Coffee locations and plans to have 700 by year-end. Eastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are particularly good opportunities for hotspot oriented developers, network operators, service providers and venue owners due to relatively high mobile phone and broadband adoption and low but increasing hotspot deployments.

More information about ON World's recently completed report, "European Hotspots: A Rapidly Growing Ecosystem," is available from ON World's website at: http://www.onworld.com/html/europehotspots.htm. Cost is $249.

About ON World:
ON World provides world class business intelligence on emerging wireless technology markets for Fortune 1000 companies, venture capitalists and startups. More information about ON World's research services and products may be found from http://www.onworld.com.

Media Contact: Mareca Hatler, eMail
Phone: 858.259.2397