SA Wi-Fi growth mapped

 ·5 Nov 2014
wifi

New research conducted on behalf of international Wi-Fi provider iPass indicates that by 2018, South Africa will have one Wi-Fi hotspot for every 122 people.

Currently, that figure is at about 6,160 people per hotspot in SA, compared to one Wi-Fi hotspot for every 150 people on a global scale.

The data, from analysts Maravedis Rethink, shows there will be 47.7 million public Wi-Fi hotspots deployed worldwide by the end of 2014.

The group’s map shows that over the next four years, global hotspot numbers will grow to over 340 million; nearly one Wi-Fi hotspot for every twenty people on earth by 2018.

South Africa

The research found that Wi-Fi hotspots in South Africa jumped 10% in 2014, to 8,611 commercial hotspots, including 2,256 cafes, 3,211 retail areas, 3,099 hotels and 39 airports. This is up from 7,796 in 2013.

iPass predicts that Wi-Fi hotspots will increase by a further 26% in 2015, to 9,859 spots and will include 10 planes and 3,529 retail areas.

The number is then expected to sky-rocket 2,817% in 2016 to 11,897 commercial hotspots, and 215,514 community ‘homespots’.

By 2018, Wi-Fi hotspots would have seen a 5,451% increase in SA, including 15,594 commercial hotspots, and 417,175 community Wi-Fi areas.

Global appeal

France is the “country of Wi-Fi” in 2014 with the most hotspots in total, according to iPass, followed by the USA and the UK. By 2018 this will change to the USA, followed by China and France, it predicts.

Europe is the “continent of Wi-Fi” with 50% of the world’s Wi-Fi estate in 2014. By 2018, Asia will strip Europe of this title.

iPass noted that 22.7 million Wi-Fi hotspots are enabled for roaming between different provider networks today; this number rises to 289.3 million in 2018.

“Over the last few years we’ve seen the emergence of the ‘Wi-Fi first’ generation. Wi-Fi has become cool again; in fact it’s seen by most as an essential utility, just like water or electricity,” said Evan Kaplan, president and CEO of iPass.

“Most of the devices we use are Wi-Fi only and even on the most advanced 4G handsets, 78% of data goes over Wi-Fi. Simply put, it’s the network of choice for consumers and soon they’ll be able to roam this alternative network of millions of hotspots.”

Planes, Trains and Community Hotspots Wi-Fi is also on the move; becoming available on 60% of planes and 11% of trains by 2018.

This compares to only 16% of planes and 3% of trains equipped with Wi-Fi in 2014.

In South Africa, a lowly 8 trains are expected to have WiFi, along with 100 planes by 2018.

Community ‘homespot’ public Wi-Fi hotspots will see the most explosive growth, rising from just under 40 million in 2014 to over 325 million in 2018.

Power shift

The research showed that 50% of all commercial hotspots are controlled by brands whose core business isn’t telecommunications. As opposed to the highly-regulated cellular world, Wi-Fi is organic, emergent and empowering; it’s not regulated and it’s easy for anyone to deploy, Maravedis Rethink said.

“As a result, we are witnessing a power shift from traditional telcos to business owners, such as cafes, hoteliers and retailers who are all getting in on the Wi-Fi game,” it said.

“A messy and fragmented global Wi-Fi network is emerging; the challenge is that it needs to be easy for consumers to access and simple for providers to monetize. This is where we’ll see the platform players like Facebook and Google come to the party.

“They have the ability to help this new breed of Wi-Fi provider get paid in meaningful currencies – namely cash, advertising or user data,” Kaplan said.

More on Wi-Fi in SA

Gautrain: Don’t expect Wi-Fi anytime soon

Free Wi-Fi in 200 SA taxis per week

SA Airports launches free Wi-Fi

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