According to a survey done for the Wireless Broadband Alliance, 70% of respondents said a key motivation for deploying carrier-grade WiFi in their systems would be to improve customer experience and therefore increase subscriber retention. In addition, 41% cited this as the single most important driver to invest in Next Generation Hotspot (NGH), ahead of offload.
Other findings indicate:
- 56.7% of respondents said they were more confident about investing in public WiFi (up from 43% in 2012).
- More than half of the hotspot operators surveyed have roaming deals to supplement their networks (up from 30% last year), and 35% of respondents are implementing WiFi roaming as one of their monetization strategies.
- Last year, 44% expected to have deployed NGH by the end of 2015. By the end of 2016, a further 31% of those with active plans for NGH expect to have deployed.