WiFi Monetization - Highway & iWay Still a Hop Away

WiFi Marketing , Business Model and Analytic 

Public WI-FI is  becoming Ubiquitous with the explosive growth of Data Hungry “Smart devices” , Devices that only work on Wi-Fi & Improvements in Wi-Fi Technology. WiFi hotspot jumped from 30 thousand to 2 million in last less than 2 years in India while at global level as per WAB from 1.5 million in year 2011 this crossed 6 million by March 2016, However still this industry is waiting to discover a sustainable & scalable business model.

Its therefore becoming More and more important to have a concrete WI-FI Strategy in place for Mobile carriers, Fixed line operators & Integrated Carriers as how wifi business model working in India and overseas. Hence time has come to do a deep dive and understand the whole ecosystem , future business and hurdles and how to overcome those

What happening in India one the world's fastest growing economy and smartphone and internet users . Indian Prime minister Mr Narendra modi said during his visit to the silicon valley visit ,  "India needs both Highway and i-Way at this time" , Delhi election (one of the  campaign won basis  WiFi availability (WiFi for Free) and then all our leaders trying working out a WiFi for their town to take political mileage.

Recently DOT has also shown great interest in developing and unifying Rules of engagement on WiFi  looking at the increasing interest of some telecom giant putting huge infrastructure , However the desired pace is not available because no one is coming out with business Model  as how to make money and sustain their future.  http://bit.ly/TRAIonWiFi 
"We will soon float the consultation which will try to find ways in which both the user of public Wi-Fi and providers are able to benefit," RS Sharma, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, told ET. The paper will try to recommend certain 'payment gateways' that will ease the usage of Wi-Fi.

How the WiFi ecosystem looks like ..

Here presenting a thorough research on the WiFi Business Model to understand  In order to strengthen our understanding to build the WiFi business to make it more scientific and rewarding  as asked , I did  an extensive study on Public WiFi business model , technology and ecosystem in India and abroad by small & Large organizational format , which I am putting here for your kind reference .

While Wi-Fi Strategy is being inherited as a part of  core network strategy overseas , we are now also beginning to see Indian Carriers starting to exploit the Wi-Fi arena to gain competitive as well as first mover Advantage in the competitive Telecom space.

               

And looking at the existing ISP ecosystem their objectives can be defined as below for all three major category of ISPs.

While I am attaching a detailed deck for your reference ,  would like to highlight the project strategy, challenges , observation/innovations  & Key takeaways.

Project Learning & Findings

WI-FI Is becoming Ubiquitous Number of Public WI-FI Across world have crossed 5.8M by end of 2015.     WI-FI Enabled devices Shipped by 2015 has gone up by 122%  from 2012 to 2015 leading to increased need of Carrier Grade Wi-Fi.     Wi-Fi Carried more than 42 percent of the world’s mobile data traffic & 90% of worlds tablet Traffic .Wi-Fi Carries 10 times more Traffic than cellular globally.     With Development of Wi-Fi Standards, Performance of Wi-Fi has significantly increased from 11Mbps to 1Gbps. Update  in Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ ac will bring new features such as Multi-user MIMO to increase performance and network capacity.  And what all driving this ...      WiGig CERTIFIED™ & Wi-Fi HaLow™ programs expected to bring multi gigabit connectivity to homes & increase the range of Wi-Fi while reducing the power requirements.     In 2015 68% of Wi-Fi devices are DUAL-BAND. This Number is Expected to rise to 96% by 2019.     Number of connected devices to reach 38.5 Billion by 2020 with Manufacturers aiding intelligence & Connectivity to products like Vacuum Cleaner , Door locks , Coffee Makers etc . Concept of connected home picking up.     Wi-Fi as a core network strategy for many Mobile operators globally with main focused on Cost Saving through Offload, Expanding coverage in congested areas.     Fixed Carriers also starting to feel the need for WI-FI Strategy  primarily to Extend services beyond homes & Increase usefulness, Provide service differentiator & Improve customer stickiness.     Integrated carriers Exploit service advantages of both fixed & mobile, Have significant cost advantages, Offload Traffic to Wi-Fi to reduce cost, Have Ability to use their own fixed network to provide the necessary backhaul to power their Wi-Fi access points, leverage in reciprocal roaming agreements with aggregators.     There is a Lack of concrete direct Revenue models for Monetizing WIFI. WiFi Models currently  being used for Data Offload, Reducing chum & improving brand perception & QOS     Emerging Revenue models for Wi-Fi include , Location based /Proximity wifi Advertising, Generate new revenue streams by partnerships with location specific partners and creating brand affinity through promotions for on premise customer visibility, Revenue sharing with venue partners, Wholesale etc.     Wifi Land grab is already under way with fixed line operators and Operators like Airtel  & Vodafone starting to grab major retail stores, Premium locations and setting up wifi along with the newest entrant Jio.

So at the end here I am attaching few monetization cases to leave you with some food for thought :

And here I request you to share your thought and advise on this hot discussion properties  to co-create a sustainable and scalable WiFi business model   .