ON World In The News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Muni Wireless Broadband: Driving Innovative Services and
New Market Opportunities to be Worth $Billions in 2011

SAN DIEGO, CA – February 12, 2007 –  Municipal wireless broadband is creating new services opportunities for a total potential North American market of $10 billion in 2011, according to ON World.  

“Municipal Wireless Broadband is becoming widespread across major metropolitan regions in North America, the UK, and Asia,” says Mareca Hatler ON World’s Director of Research.  “While most of the media attention has centered on Telecom business models for public access, the most exciting impact of this market is that it is  driving new service innovations in Mobile VOIP, public safety, transportation, and utility networks,” says Hatler.  “Municipal services will make up more than two-thirds of the total Municipal Wireless Broadband services market in 2011.”

For a recently published research report, ON World interviewed 335 senior managers with local governments, public safety organizations, and several vertical industries. 

Highlights of this research include the following:

Public Access

  • By 2011, there could be 26 million paying users of Municipal public access for a global total potential market worth $5.7 billion at this time.
  • A few of today’s leading Municipal Public Access service providers include EarthLink, MetroFI, MobilePro, Q-Ware Systems, and British Telecom.
  • Mobile VOIP is major driver for adopting municipal public access services.
  • A quarter of mobile professionals in the survey would be interested in a WiFi enabled mobile phone that supports VOIP.
  • Nearly half of the interviewees were highly interested in using a cell phone with mobile VOIP and 53 percent said they would be willing to spend $31 to $50 per month. 

Public Safety

  • Nearly two-thirds of the interviewed municipalities in our survey are using or plan to use wireless broadband for public safety.
  • Sixty-one percent of public safety professionals have the highest demand for personnel safety.
  • Motorola’s lead in this market is both disruptive and sustainable which represents a threat to other equipment vendors.

Transportation

  • Fifty percent of interviewees with cities from 50K to 500K residents expressed the highest interest in using wireless traffic solutions.
  • Nearly two thirds of the interviewees with cities that have >500K residents expressed high (21%) or very high (43%) interest in wireless solutions for parking management
  • A few innovative startups in this market include Sensys Networks, Streetline, Telemics, and VehicleSense.

ON World’s recently published report, “Municipal Wireless Broadband: Service Oriented Mesh-ups,” includes the following:

  • More than 300 interviews with senior municipal and information technology managers
  • Value System analysis of four markets covering infrastructure, devices, software, and services
  • Market size forecasts on equipment and several service areas
  • A budget evaluation of 27 North American cities
  • Current deployment status and planned services for more than 200 cities

The report is available from: http://onworld.com/wbb/


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About ON World:
ON World is the leader in emerging wireless research. Customers include Fortune 1000 companies, service providers, venture capitalists, startups and consultancies worldwide. Please visit our website for more information: http://www.onworld.com.

Media Contact: Mareca Hatler, eMail
Phone: 858.259.2397

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