Large European companies are spending more onwireless networksthan on wired
networks, according to research commissioned by network equipment
supplier Motorola.
The study canvassed more than 400 CIOs with European firms with
more than 1,000 staff. It found that 57% firms cited their main
reason for going wireless as a strategic need for mobility. It
showed that 88% expect all their networked equipment to be
wireless-enabled within three years.
The research also found that 75% of companies already use some
wireless infrastructure and almost a 20% are mostly or completely
wireless. More than 40% of Spanish firms are mostly or completely
wireless today.
Angelo Lamme, wireless director of Motorola's enterprise
mobility business for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said firms
were mostly looking to convert their local area networks to
wireless operation. This was to give them more flexibility in using
office space.
But, using
radio-based identity
tags (RFID), they had also extended wireless networking into
the supply chain to track and trace goods and processes, he said.
"This is especially the case with manufacturing and retail firms,"
he said.
Lamme said firms were starting to explore the opportunities for
integrating their wireless and fixed wired networks, as well as
roaming between their own private networks and public wide area
networks that use either or both media. "Radio frequency switching
is going to be the next big thing," Lamme said.
However, suppliers would still have to satisfy CIOs' top three
demands for
security, performance and reliability, he said.
He warned that the lack of suitable radio frequencies could
dampen demand. He called on regulators to speed up moves to make
more frequencies available.
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