According to new a research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, WLAN will become the next prevalent connectivity technology in mass-market mobile handsets. The number of handsets with integrated WLAN is forecasted to grow from 27 million in 2007 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 71.5 percent to 400 million in 2012, corresponding to an attach rate of 25 percent. WLAN will primarily be used for high-speed Internet access in home or office networks and file transfer of for instance photos and media libraries. “Mobile operators no longer consider WLAN a threat against data revenues”, said André Malm, telecom analyst, Berg Insight. “As flat-rate plans for data access become the norm, encouraging subscribers to use a local Internet connection actually makes much sense as a way to prevent data overload in mobile networks.”
