The City of Philadelphia recently announced that it will create and manage a city-wide WiFi hotspot, causing consternation among carriers.  A similar idea being discussed in San Francisco was recently pronounced as "dumb" by Verizon CEO Ivan Seidbenberg.  Meanwhile, privately managed hotspots are appearing in cafes, hotels, and airports throughout the world. And large numbers of homes have their own small wireless networks.

Add all this up, and you get the sense that one way or another, wireless communications are becoming part of the normal fabric of modern-day life. This observation seems to be reinforced by the U.S. Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in a new report that projects WiFi and WiMAX infrastructure revenue  to reach $5.2 billion and $115 million respectively in 2005.

"The Wi-Fi equipment market is increasing at a fast pace and will continue to grow as hot spots proliferate," the reports says.

"An emerging WiMAX equipment market will also contribute to growth in the coming years.  We expect revenue from spending on wireless capital expenditures/Wi-Fi/WiMAX to reach an estimated $22.3 billion in 2005, climbing to $29.3 billion by 2008, a 7.1 percent compound annual gain."

The report also cites a dramatic comeback in wireless spending in 2004. "Spending on services in support of the wireless infrastructure (including Wi-Fi and WiMAX), such as basic services and support (e.g., field maintenance and repair), professional services, and depot repair and logistics rose 13.6 percent in 2004, rebounding from the 31.8 percent drop in 2003 associated with the drop in wireless infrastructure spending.," it states.

As a result, "major carriers such as SBC, Verizon and Sprint have already announced deals to expand the number of hot spots and to broaden their networks," says TIA President Matthew J. Flanigan (pictured).  'It is likely that both of these markets will stimulate the overall broadband market to the benefit of all technologies.'"

The number of WiFi hot spots in the United States increased from 3,400 to 21,500 between 2002 and 2004, the TIA reports. That number will grow to 32,500 this year, TIA believes, then grow to 64,200 by 2008, growing at a 31.5% compound annual growth rate.

Meanwhile, the infamous last mile problem is being addressed by WiMAX, according to the TIA. "WiMAX is emerging as a last-mile broadband wireless Internet access solution," the organization says. " WiMAX provides wireless services in the metropolitan area network (MAN) just as Wi-Fi provides wireless services in LANs.  WiMAX has the potential to make broadband service available in regions where it is currently not feasible, particularly in rural communities."