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W
orld Wi-Fi Day has
again been celebrated,
signifying a day where
governments, industries
and consumers recognise the important role
of Wi-Fi in socio-economic development.
This special day celebrates the advances of Wi-
Fi and how it enables affordable connectivity
for the unconnected around the world.
Riaan Graham, Sales Director for Ruckus
Networks (now part of CommScope via
acquisition) Sub-Saharan Africa, said: “Wi-Fi
networks across commercial, government
and communities, have continued to grow
at a rapid pace across the continent. Both
governments and network operators are
realising with high-speed backhaul networks,
it is a small marginal cost to add Wi-Fi access
points at key points in the networks.
“As a result, Wi-Fi is currently connecting
millions of people in Africa and represents
one of the most expedient and cost-
effective ways to increase both capacity and
coverage. And it’s growth is in full force.”
Here are some of the stats:
• There are nine billion Wi-Fi devices in
use and three billion devices are shipped
every year
• There are more Wi-Fi devices than
people (7.6 billion) and cellular
subscribers (5.2 billion)
• Wi-Fi accounts for most wireless traffic
today. In the US, Wi-Fi carries 67% of
mobile device traffic. In Japan, mobile
subscribers use Wi-Fi for 83% of their
traffic and 75% of connections, and
Wi-Fi connections are on average twice as
fast as those over cellular (10 Mbps and 5
Mbps, respectively)
• Wi-Fi is well-positioned to benefit from the
explosive growth in the Internet of Things
(IoT) and it already accounts for a large
percentage of current IoT connections
• The global economic value of Wi-Fi
was US$196 trillion in 2018, and that is
expected to reach US$3.47 trillion in 2023
“Africa’s continued growth is driven by the
need to not only connect the unconnected,
but to consolidate demands for access and
data,” added Graham.
“What’s more, the ubiquity, reliability,
performance and cost effectiveness of Wi-Fi
www.intelligentcio.com
FEATURE: WI-FI DEPLOYMENT
Riaan Graham, Sales Director for
Ruckus Networks
have created a massive footprint that will
retain its prominent role as we transition to
new networks, such as 5G.”
However, for Wi-Fi to continue growing,
more spectrum is required. Wi-Fi is not only
a cost-effective solution for both urban and
rural areas, but it plays a fundamental role in
key areas such as making South Africa more
accessible for business by improving the
ease-of-doing business in the country, as well
as increasing global competitiveness.
“We believe that Wi-Fi technology should be
recognised as a core pillar of the National
Broadband Strategy to truly realise the
unlimited capacity that Wi-Fi provides and
open up true connectivity across the country
and continent,” said Graham. With the
transition to Wi-Fi 6 – where most providers
are already scaling access points and
technology infrastructures to accommodate
this shift – this is even more critical. In fact,
Wi-Fi 6 will be important to the overall
industry and will bring better speeds, lower
latency and enhanced support. The flexibility
and scalability that Wi-Fi 6 enables results in
increased speed and capacity with next-
generation applications.
“For Africa to realise the true potential that
Wi-Fi technology can bring to the continent,
the issues of spectrum needs to solved so the
necessary infrastructure can be accessible for
limitless possibilities, encouraging a better
quality of life, business growth and investments
into the continent,” said Graham. n
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