Wi-Fi market in India to touch $890 Mn mark by 2011-12

New Delhi: According to a study sponsored by the Global Wi-Fi Alliance and conducted by Tonse Telecom, the Wi-Fi market in India will grow to $890 million by 2011-12, thanks to a boom in, and subsequent Wi-Fi adaptation by, sectors like realty, retail, infrastructure and the Indian Railways.

This growth figure includes WLAN gear, networking tools, professional services, Wirless Internet Service Provider (WISP) revenues, Wi-Fi applications that are being built for niche sectors, handheld terminals, and system integration services, but does not include chipsets, laptops, PDAs, cell phone handsets and other devices. In 2007-08, there was a 100 percent increase in the number of Wi-Fi hotspots to about 1,600. This number is expected to increase by multiple times this year.

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The report profiles the work of a non-profit organization, Byrraju Foundation, which leverages Wi-Fi technology to connect rural farmers to experts in agriculture, remote patients to doctors, and young villagers to training and employment opportunities. Also profiled in the report, startup venture O-Zone has set its sights on urban development, bringing Wi-Fi service to consumers and mobile workers at home, in public places, and on the corporate campus.

According to Global Wi-FI Alliance senior marketing manager Kelly Davis-Felner, the addressable base of Wi-Fi-enabled client devices is growing steadily in India since about 90 to 95 percent of notebooks being sold today had a built-in Wi-Fi capability.

"We have noticed that a small but growing number of Indian mobile subscribers are going in for handsets with Wi-Fi capability. A highly mobile, young generation increasingly expects near-always-on mobile broadband connectivity and is willing to pay for it. These factors will drive increased use of Wi-Fi in India moving forward," Davis-Felner added.

"Wi-Fi has an important role to play in India's economic development," said Sridhar T. Pai, chief executive of Tonse Telecom. "Wi-Fi brings easy-to-use last-mile connectivity to homes, offices, and public spaces and can enable communities and enterprises to grow and thrive."

The global Wi-FI alliance's study also points out that exploding real-estate market growing at 30 percent annually, coupled with the fact that organized retail was expected to add about 220 million square feet of space by 2010, provided the perfect platform for Wi-Fi to take off in India.

Other factors that will ignite Wi-Fi in India include large-scale developments of hotspots by corporates, telcos and PSUs. For instance, the Indian Railways recently announced that all important rail-routes between metros would be made Wi-Fi-enabled together with 50 railway stations (20 of which to be completed by March, 2008).