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The Rise of Wi-Fi First: Why It Matters to the Enterprise

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After years of development and growth, Wi-Fi now outpaces fourth-generation, long-term evolution (4G LTE) cellular technology, both in regions where mobile data infrastructure is highly developed as well as in those where mobile data infrastructure is far less ubiquitous. So why does Wi-Fi first matter? Given it benefits and popularity, plus its potential for even better service delivery in the future, Wi-Fi should be at the centerpiece of your enterprise mobility strategy.

Why? Well, the value of workplace mobility to workplace productivity can’t be overstated. Seventy-one percent of workers believe that mobility makes them more productive. Getting the full value out of your workplace mobility initiative requires a Wi-Fi first service.

That’s a shift away from how IT departments traditionally provisioned their users. Formerly, mobility strategies relied on cellular connectivity, limiting choice of providers. When choice is limited, quality improvement and cost reduction end up on the chopping block. With the rise of Wi-Fi first, that is no longer the case. That’s crucial, because enterprise mobility has never been more important.

Mobility is central to two technology trends that are having a transformative impact on corporate competitiveness. The first is digitization. The provision of contextual information, such as location-based data, makes mobile (enterprise) applications more useful, at least according to nearly 80 percent of mobile application developers that make applications more useful. And the second is the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend, which permits employees to use their own personal devices to conduct work alongside or (often) in place of corporate-provided handsets.

For starters, sanctioning personal device use can improve employee productivity, encourage innovative ways of interacting with customers and business partners, and often even increase recruiting acceptance rates, all of which improve a company’s competitive advantage on the market.

What’s included in this paper:

  • People prefer Wi-Fi
  • A growing trend in and outside of the enterprise
  • Wi-Fi growth drivers
  • Conclusion
  • About iPass
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