The head of BT’s wireless division has said significant
price cuts for Wi-Fi users over the next year are
unlikely.
Wi-Fi wireless network technology has been growing in popularity
among businesses, which see it as a cost-effective alternative to
3G and GPRS services from the main mobile operators. BT said
take-up of its Wi-Fi service, Openzone, increased by 400% last year
and was growing by 20% a month.
But the firm does not expect prices to fall in the short
term.
In an interview with Computer Weekly, Chris Clark, chief
executive of wireless broadband at BT, said, "I don’t think you
will necessarily see massive movement of the raw price [of Wi-Fi
networks]. What you will see and what you are beginning to see is
Wi-Fi tariffs being bundled.
"There has been a lot of work in making sure it was priced
appropriately."
Clark predicted more business users would use Wi-Fi to make
telephone calls instead of traditional mobile phone networks. There
are 7,500 Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK and 20,000 across twelve
countries.
Mark Blowers, senior research analyst at Butler Group, said BT’s
strategy of bundling Wi-Fi with other services could reduce the
freedom of IT directors to choose different operators for mobile,
fixed-line and Wi-Fi services.
"This will be a challenge for IT directors. There will be no
easy way to calculate billing," he said. This would make it
difficult for users to compare prices and determine whether the
contract with the operators was cost-effective," Blower added.