Wireless broadband skyrockets in Australia

Mar 30, 2005: The IDC has reported that businesses in Australia have gone crazy for wireless connectivity since Telstra launched cheap entry-level brands in February 2004, prompting a price ware between Internet Service Providers.

The result is that the WLAN market in Australia has grown by 119 percent, which includes access points, wireless broadband routers, bridges and wireless switches.

Shing Quah, an associate analyst at IDC telecommunications said: "Shipments of wireless switches also skyrocketed in 2004, particularly as the wireless switch/thin access point architecture takes centre stage in Enterprise WLAN deployments.

"Airespace's rapid growth in the WLAN markets through its OEM partnership with Nortel, Alcatel and NEC, and its subsequent acquisition in January 2005 by Cisco attests to the manageability, security and reduced TCO promised by the wireless switch/thin access point architecture."

Quah added that the Airespace acquisition not only completes Cisco's WLAN offerings for its medium enterprises, it also prompted Cisco's staunch rivals Nortel and Alcatel to rethink their WLAN strategy.

Overall, IDC found Netgear to be the champion of the 2004 Australian WLAN equipment market.

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