Wi-Fi Alliance has forecast $1 billion Wi-Fi market in India by 2012. Mobile phone and consumer electronic products will drive the Wi-Fi market in India.

Edgar Figueroa, executive director of Wi-Fi Alliance said that the Indian market is witnessing a growth of 12 per cent, which would continue to grow. He said that mobile handsets are expected to grow at 33 per cent and consumer electronics by 25 per cent by 2012. At present, the Indian Wi-Fi market is pegged at $450 million.

The $1 billion market includes WLAN network gear, system integration and system integration tools and professional services. This excludes embedded chipsets in laptops and other devices.

“Wi-Fi enabled smartphones are expected to grow at 49.5 per cent CAGR between 2008 and 2012, more than double the rate of the category as a whole. With mobile penetration increasing in the rural market of the country, we expect growth will take place in this category. The 400 million mobile subscriber base will bring about the growth in the market,” Figueroa said.

In the notebook segment around 25 per cent of all PC sales in India include Wi-Fi enabled. Figueroa said that the low broadband penetration in the country has affected the faster growth of Wi-Fi deployments in the country. However, he added that new technologies like WiMax would accelerate the growth. The broadband policy of 2004 set a target of nine million broadband subscribers by the end of 2007. However, at present, the total number of broadband subscribers is far below the target set by the government.

“Last-mile connectivity from long-distance Wi-Fi link is the next level for India. We expect once the WiMax spectrum is auctioned, this will enabled long-distance deployments,” he said. The number of Wi-Fi hotspots in India is 1,500-1,600, compared to 127 million hotspots globally. O-Zone Networks is strongly betting on the Wi-Fi hotspot market in India and is targeting to set up around 4,000 hotspots.