Will Commercial Wireless Services Replace Enterprise WANs?

When it comes to commercial wireless services, business users do not receive any special treatment. Wireless operators do not care who actually pays them for their services and they believe that mobility benefits will continue to offset service quality issues. Network planners should consider the following points when preparing WAN strategy plans – especially if there are thoughts to phase out portions of the WAN and replace them with wireless services:

• The problematic history of the telephone network.
• Why 3G and 4G networks will not replace enterprise WANs.
• The consumer market impact on business users.

In 2009, commercial wireless services could replace small portions of some enterprise WANs, but they may provide more value when used for backup or to augment WAN capabilities.