The majority of carrier Wi-Fi deployments are at least substantially aimed at improving the customer experience, new research from Maravedis-Rethink suggests.
A survey of operators and equipment/device vendors, commissioned by the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), shows that 70% believe a key motivation for deploying carrier-grade Wi-Fi is improving the customer experience and boosting retention.
More than 40% believe that this is the single most important reason to invest in next-generation Wi-Fi hotspots, ahead of offload.
The survey shows that 56.7% of respondents are more confident in investing in public Wi-Fi – either as operators or product and carrier service providers - than they had been a year ago, up from 52% in 2013 and 43% in 2012.
While carrier Wi-Fi is being deployed in a broad range of venues, large venues including stadiums, shopping malls and airports account for the majority of Wi-Fi traffic growth.
“Carrier Wi-Fi has experienced a revolution over the past year and is now being embraced by an ever growing number of carriers,” WBA CEO Shrikant Shenwai said.
“The significant progress in live commercial NGH deployments, and in turn new monetization strategies, provide evidence of major improvements in quality of service, ease of use and revenue generation that the technology brings.”
Wi-Fi roaming is meanwhile becoming an important way to extend coverage, especially internationally, with just over 50% of hotspot operators having roaming deals to supplement their networks.
Around 35% are implementing Wi-Fi roaming as a monetization strategy, up from just 10% in 2013.