Date: 4th jan 2011

Wi-Fi hotspot connects are anticipated to grow over 11 billion by 2014

In-Stat has projected the worldwide annual hotspot connects are anticipated to grow to over 11 billion by 2014.

“Venue growth will begin to wane over the next several years as operator networks reach a critical mass and desirable locations become saturated. Growth in usage is expected to remain strong over the forecast period,” says Amy Cravens, Market Analyst. “In the past, usage growth has largely been tied to venue growth, i.e. the more venues the more usage, and the rate of usage per venue was fairly constant. Going forward, however, usage growth will be driven by increases in connects per day at each venue. This is a result, at least in part, to a broadening base of Wi-Fi-enabled devices.”

Some of the research findings from In-Stat include:
Worldwide annual hotspot connects, or sessions, will reach over 2 billion by the end of 2010 with annual hotspot connects anticipated to grow to over 11 billion by 2014.
Asia/Pacific will have about one quarter of the worldwide hotspot venues over the forecast period.
By 2012, handhelds are anticipated to account for half of hotspot connects.
The total worldwide hotspot market size will swell to 319,200 venues by year-end.
Annual venue growth is expected to remain strong over the next several years, but will begin to slow in latter forecast years.
Europe and North America are the largest hotspot markets based on usage (annual connects).

AT&T has reported in the third quarter 2010, AT&T handled 106.9 million Wi-Fi connections on its network, exceeding the total 85.5 million connections made during the entire year in 2009.