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| Michael Fletcher, sales director for Ruckus Wireless sub-Saharan Africa |
The prevalence of Wi-Fi in Africa
and around the world is increasing, with more and more mobile operators looking
to deploy it as part of their overall networks, according to Ruckus Wireless,
Inc., an exhibitor at this year’s AfricaCom, running from 12 – 14 November 2013
at the CTICC, in Cape Town, South Africa. As the role for Wi-Fi in mobile
networks becomes clearer, and carrier-grade Wi-Fi solutions such as Ruckus
Smart Wi-Fi become more readily available, the monetisation options are
becoming clearer as well.
“The vast majority of the world is still
waiting for broadband service. In the well-populated parts of developed
countries, existing fixed phone and infrastructure has made broadband
relatively easy to offer, and availability is now very high,” says Michael Fletcher,
sales director for Ruckus Wireless sub-Saharan Africa. “Everywhere else,
though, especially across regions in Africa, the high costs of current options,
such as deploying new fixed infrastructure or large-scale macro-cellular
wireless models like WiMAX, are big barriers to further broadband subscriber
growth, yet the demand for Wi-Fi is there, and that’s where we come in.”
According to the Broadband
Commission’s ‘State of Broadband 2013’ report, mobile broadband is the fastest
growing technology in human history. Mobile broadband subscriptions, which
allow users to access the web via smartphones, tablets and Wi-Fi-connected
laptops, are growing at a rate of 30% per year. In fact, by the end of 2013
there will be more than three times as many mobile broadband connections as
there are conventional fixed broadband subscriptions, with 2.1 billion mobile
broadband subscriptions worldwide, which is equivalent to one third of the
total global stock of mobile cellular subscriptions.
“Looking at these figures, Africa
has some catching up to do in terms of access – despite being big consumers and
drivers of mobile,” continues Fletcher. South Africa ranked at number 62 out of
170 countries on mobile broadband penetration (26%), while Ghana is the best
ranked country in Africa at 49 (33%), followed by Zimbabwe, Namibia and Egypt.
“We believe we have solved this problem. Our field-proven Smart Wi-Fi approach
to wireless broadband access opens vast new segments of customers to broadband
operators. We can dramatically reduce the capital costs of broadband
infrastructure, which in combination with build-as-you grow business models can
deliver attractively short breakeven timelines, even in very low average
revenue per user (ARPU) markets.”
Wi-Fi is playing an increasingly important
role as operators try to manage traffic and customer demand, while improving
customer satisfaction and reducing churn. With the arrival of Hotspot 2.0, a
standard developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) and fully supported by Ruckus
Wireless, this could have a big impact on IT managers, enabling them to
monetise their public access Wi-Fi networks by entering into roaming
arrangements with mobile operators – providing even further incentives across
industries.
“In time, the consumer won’t know or
care what access they’re using, cellular or Wi-Fi, because it will all be
automatic. They will get a bill at the end of every month that covers all
access,” continues Fletcher. However in order for this to happen, the
organisations that run these Wi-Fi networks need to enter into agreements with
the mobile network operators (MNOs.
“Currently monetisation options are largely
limited but with extensive data analytics, for example, that can enhance
location-based services and offer additional revenue-generating opportunities
for marketing, advertising and loyalty programmes, this opportunity for MNOs is
increasingly opening up, and is set to change the way not only consumers think
of Wi-Fi, but the way IT managers and operators see it as well.”
“The potential that Wi-Fi has to
change and open up the telecommunications landscape in Africa, as with the rest
of the world, cannot be denied. Wi-Fi is becoming more and more pervasive and
the sooner Africa realises the flexibility and overall cost-effectiveness Wi-Fi
has, backed by a more concrete business model, the sooner we can more
effectively leverage and expand Wi-Fi to meet the demand for broadband access
in Africa,” concludes Fletcher.
