Six reasons to go wireless

Although more and more work in corporate enterprises requires network or internet access, staff are actually spending less and less time tethered to their desks, connected to the traditional wired network.

Instead, they're on the move: they carry notebooks or PDAs to a colleague's cubicle or a conference room, or they're working away at an airport or hotel room.

This mobility revolution has been fuelled by the explosion of companies installing wireless local area networks (Lans) that use industry standard 802.11b, or Wi-Fi radio technology.

According to market researchers International Data Corp (IDC), worldwide revenue for wireless Lan equipment was up 34 per cent in 2001 on the previous year, and is expected to more than double by 2006.

Recent data from Gartner estimates that two-thirds of the world's 1,000 largest companies will use Wi-Fi networks by 2005. Nearly one-third of enterprises with computer networks already have some wireless Lan segments in place. So why should your business be unchaining people from their desks right now?

We've identified the following six factors:

1. Wireless Lans are fast enough for everyday business use
The first wireless networks only offered speeds of 2Mbps, about the equivalent speed of downloading information using a residential high-speed internet service. But today's wireless Lans using the Wi-Fi standard operate at speeds up to 11Mbps, five times as fast and more than adequate for everyday business use.

So accessing email and the internet, listening and watching streaming audio and video, or accessing spreadsheets or documents from a central server is not only possible, it's now possible wherever corporate employees want it and need it.

And coming soon to a boardroom near you are even greater wireless speeds; five times as fast with a new standard called 802.11a so that video conferencing, internet telephony and more bandwidth-intensive applications such as graphic design work can also be conducted untethered.

2. Wireless equipment is now affordable
A common misperception is that wireless networking is still a 'bleeding-edge' technology, which is often a euphemism for 'premium priced'. In fact, wireless Lans can be significantly less expensive than a traditional wired network.

The average cost per user in a wired Ethernet network is £160 to £260, while the cost per user for wireless is only £80 to £130. Furthermore, the more users you have on a wireless network, the lower the per-user cost.

This is not as true of wired networks. Wireless costs are also coming down faster. Using application-specific integrated circuit (Asic) technology, per-user wireless Lan costs are expected to drop below £65 soon.

3. Wireless Lans can save you money
The hardware and software is not the only measure of wireless Lan costs. Extensive research by Gartner shows that the total cost of ownership (TCO) for wireless Lans is also slightly lower than wired Lans in certain scenarios. Besides capital costs, TCO also takes into account IT operations, administrative and user operational costs over the life of the product.

Gartner did its TCO analysis for two scenarios: a 100-person office implementing a wireless Lan extension to an existing wired network; and a 45-person branch office deploying a wireless Lan as the only network. In both cases, the TCO was lower than for wired Lans.

In certain cases, wireless Lans make particularly good sense. Rapidly growing entrepreneurial companies, for instance, can essentially take their entire network with them when they move to expanded office space, instead of leaving behind much of their wired network investment in the form of cabling.

The same applies for temporary office networks. Accounting firm Monday (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers) is currently rolling out a Wi-Fi-based system that allows its staff to quickly set up a wireless Lan in a client's office when they temporarily move in to conduct a financial audit.

Some companies may want customers and suppliers coming into their facility to be able to access an intranet or extranet. Visitors can also access the internet over the wireless Lan or even their own corporate Lan via the local internet connection. The pervasive access to networks that wireless Lans deliver increases productivity for both visitors and their hosts.

4. Wireless Lans are now more secure
Transmitting sensitive corporate information through mid-air is not without risks. Clearly corporate data and emails, especially customer information, can be highly sensitive. But with the security tools available today, corporate enterprises are gaining confidence that these risks can be minimised or eliminated.

No single security measure is foolproof. The key is that enterprises can now apply multiple layers of wireless security. With every layer they apply, they are adding another lock to their network door that a hacker would have to crack. Security tools known as 'authentication' are being used to allow only certain users to access the wireless network.

Likewise, enterprises are better at protecting the actual transmission of information with stronger data encryption measures.

5. Wireless networking no longer stops at the front door
Companies with more than one building on a campus, or in close proximity in a city, can use the same Wi-Fi technology - or higher-frequency, higher-speed radio technologies - to build wireless 'bridges' between buildings. And they'll realise significant savings by doing so.

The radios and antennas needed to set up a wireless bridge between two buildings can cost as little as £500. Once established, they require minimal maintenance, and are otherwise cost-free.

The traditional alternative has been leasing a dedicated T-1 (1.55Mbps) network link between two buildings. Over the long haul, it's a much more expensive proposition, with prices ranging from £300 to £1,000 per month, depending on the speed of the link.

In addition, when the T-1 service suppliers dig up pavement, sidewalks or whatever exists between the two buildings in order to lay the necessary fibre cables, they typically charge the customer some or all of the costs. This alone can be more than the cost of a wireless bridge.

And even if both buildings to be linked are on a supplier's existing copper or fibre network, you still face ongoing monthly charges in the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of pounds.

6. Wireless Lans are popping up everywhere
Finally, the same laptop wireless PC card that allows employees to connect to the office wireless Lan now lets them use fledgling wireless internet services outside the office.

More and more hotels, airports and even shopping malls are offering free or for-fee wireless access on their premises. They work in much the same way as office wireless Lans, and use the same Wi-Fi radio technology.

Service providers are setting up these Wi-Fi hotspots in some unlikely locations. For example, in the US, the Starbucks coffee shop chain is installing wireless access in many of its restaurants.

Meanwhile, here in the UK, BT is committed to installing 4,000 hotspots around the country in places like Costa Coffee shops, airports and motorway services by June 2003.

Another company, Megabeam, has recently signed a deal with Railtrack to install hotspots at major railway stations throughout Britain. These access points give mobile business users another opportunity to access email or the internet.

Calculating the resulting productivity gains of wireless access may seem difficult, but the benefits are real.

Being able to receive and respond to messages regardless of your location, carrying on with collaborative work even as you move around, carrying on processing even when you go into a meeting, all help to boost productivity.

Wireless networks help enterprises make money and save money. It's no longer a question of wired or wireless. The question now is: when do you get it and who gets it first?