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July 19, 1999

Wireless LANs Set To Take Off

Lower prices and faster speeds produce a viable alternative to wired networks

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ireless local area networks have always had a lot to overcome: high prices, slow speeds, and proprietary technology. But that is changing. During the next few months, a new generation of fast, affordable, and standards-based wireless LAN products are set to hit the market.

The new products deserve serious consideration as an alternative to wired networks, according to analysts and IT managers already using early versions. They predict the new wave of wireless LAN products will be rapidly adopted by a large number of businesses.

The number of wireless LAN nodes shipped in a year today represents a fraction of 1% of the 43 million Ethernet nodes shipped, with most of the wireless devices going to customers in specialized vertical markets such as hospitals, universities, and retail-manufacturing businesses.

But that figure could soar to between 5% and 10% of all Ethernet nodes within 10 years, according to Bob Egan, research director of mobile and wireless at Gartner Group. "I've seen a greater than 600% increase in people interested in wireless LANs," he says. "This is a huge, exploding market."

The market is exploding because wireless LAN technology is beginning to overcome its major drawbacks. Until recently, for example, wireless LANs were "devastatingly expensive," says Craig Mathias, a principal with Farpoint Group, a research firm. In some cases, prices for wireless LANs were as high as $1,000 per node.

Photo by Edward Carreon Today, some customers have found that a wireless network can be cheaper to install and operate than a traditional wired network. Michael Cremean, director of technology at University Access Inc., a distance learning company in Los Angeles, spent about $350 per user to install a RadioLAN/10 wireless system in combination with its existing hard-wired network.

Cremean says the wireless LANs offer several cost advantages. "We've discovered that our support calls are much less," he says. "University Access had fewer service calls for our wireless connections than with our wired network."

Farpoint's Mathias says many customers will see a benefit in simply eliminating the wire. "A wired plant is expensive to install and maintain," he says, while there are fewer maintenance costs with wireless.

Cremean also says troubleshooting is much easier. "If a computer goes down, we don't have to spend any time trying to find a potential cable break," he says. According to the Yankee Group, anywhere from 35% to 70% of problems within a LAN, depending on configuration, are related to cabling. Eliminating the cable eliminates those problems--and the cost of fixing them.