FRAMINGHAM, Mass.—Although the market for wireless enterprise products and services seems to be lagging, and companies selling wireless infrastructure to businesses have been struggling, research and analyst firm IDC predicts the market for such services will grow to a staggering $37.4 billion by 2006, representing a compound annual growth rate of nearly 15 percent.
The firm pegs the massive growth on the rise of wireless local area networks, which IDC sees as driving the demand for wireless and mobile consulting, integration and managed services.
“The deployment of Internet, intranet, extranet, remote access and mobile networking infrastructure technologies has left end users at all levels of the corporate structure demanding increased network access to greater amounts of information from various remote locations, including airports, convention centers and other points on the map,” said Richard Dean, director of IDC’s wireless and mobile infrastructure services research program. “As a result, Internet roaming is becoming more popular as more end users wish to access the Internet by using the network facilities and services of providers other than their ‘home providers.’ We expect demand for Internet roaming services to increase for a number of reasons, including increasing numbers of Internet users and telecommuters worldwide, increasing mobility of the global work force, and increasing importance of data communications in the business world.”
