Wi-Fi hotspot deployments worldwide reached 4.2 million hotspots last year and should exceed 10.5 million in 2018, predicts ABI Research. The estimates include Wi-Fi hotspots deployed by mobile and fixed-line carriers as well as third-party operators.
"The mobile data growth has boosted the build-out of Wi-Fi hotspots, as it is expected that the global mobile data traffic will grow to 190,000 petabytes in 2018, from 23,000 petabytes in 2013," said Marina Lu, ABI research analyst. "Wi-Fi helps to offload 3G/4G mobile Internet users to Wi-Fi networks, which is a more cost-effective method for both mobile carriers and mobile users," Lu added.
Most Wi-Fi hotspots are located in Asia-Pacific, which account for 68.6 percent of them, followed by 12.3 percent in Latin America, 9 percent in Europe, 8.7 percent in North America and 1.4 percent in the Middle East and Africa. For more, see this ABI release.