Riku Honkanen1 WLAN Operator Cases T Research Seminar on Telecommunications Business II Riku Honkanen

Riku Honkanen2 Agenda Introduction to WLAN operations Competing Technologies Operator Cases Problems Future Conclusions

Riku Honkanen3 Introduction to WLAN Operations IEEE b is most used Offering wireless Internet access Mostly small local operators Few bigger operators with low profile WLAN services Base stations are inexpensive No license costs

Riku Honkanen4 Competing Technologies Wireless data technologies 3G mobile networks like UMTS High-speed fixed line Internet access xDSL techniques Cable modem

Riku Honkanen5 Case Studies (1/3) Jippii Jippii Freedom ( ) Home users as target Sonera Sonera wGate (2000-) Mobile business users as target ~160 hotspots

Riku Honkanen6 Case Studies (2/3) Telia Telia HomeRun (1999-) Operations in Scandinavian countries ~400 hotspots in Sweden MobileStar ( ) US operator Over 2000 hotspots Now owned by T-Mobile

Riku Honkanen7 Case Studies (3/3)

Riku Honkanen8 Problems Lack of roaming Customer needs Billing Security Physical obstacles

Riku Honkanen9 Future Use of WLAN increases Operator opportunities are however uncertain Possibly complementary with UMTS or some other technology Hotspots seem to be the future approach

Riku Honkanen10 Conclusions Operators’ have had only little success with WLAN services At least roaming is needed for interesting customers Only chance for the operators is to use WLAN as a complementary service

Riku Honkanen11 Thank you!