In-Building Wireless (IBW) systems are showing solid adoption rates and, according to the latest forecasts from ABI Research, should register almost $10 B worth of deployments next year. Corporate campuses, airports and railway stations, and retail shopping centers (in that order) are the leading verticals where the need for good indoor cellular coverage and throughput is driving the IBW market. Healthcare facilities follow close behind. The economic recovery now under way in many regions has meant the resumption of deployments that were shelved during the worst of the slump.
The question "who's buying?" may have different answers from building to building, depending on who has most to gain: enterprises, building owners, transport authorities, mobile operators, or others. There is also a role for managed service providers. The majority of deployments will continue to be found in the Asia-Pacific region, but while the Asia-Pacific region accounts for the majority of IBW deployments, most innovation is coming from North America.
To learn more about the IBW, visit ABI Research's "In-building Wireless Systems" study, which covers DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems both active and passive), repeaters, and the role currently played by picocells and femtocells in IBW. It includes a detailed breakdown of revenue, deployments, and shipments by region, system type, vertical type and building size.