For more discussions and topics around SP Mobility, please visit our Mobility Community: http://cisco.com/go/mobilitycommunity Read the blog post (with hyperlinks) here: https://communities.cisco.com/community/solutions/sp/mobility/blog/2013/11/27/a-million-wi-fi-enabled-devices-isn-t-cool-you-know-what-s-cool-a-billion-wi-fi-enabled-devices

1. A million Wi-Fi enabled devices isn’t cool, you know what’s cool? A billion
Wi-Fi enabled devices.
Posted by Darshita Maniar
It is predicted that there will be over 7 billion new Wi-Fi enabled devices in the world in the next 3
years. Yes I said billion, with a ‘b.’ This number alone shows the extensive demand for Wi-Fi across
the world. Last week I had a chance to attend the WBA Wi-Fi Global Congress in Beijing, China. With
over 400 attendees, 2 full days of keynotes, panel sessions and networking, it was very clear that the
industry players are on path to support the global demand for Wi-Fi.
This year, congress attendees were able to experience the world’s first Next Generation Hotspot
(NGH) Experience. Cisco partnered with China Mobile, along with 15 global mobile operators to
launch this experience. Attendees were able to seamlessly connect their mobile devices to the Wi-Fi
network without any need for authentication. Once on this network, attendees were also able to
receive valuable information about the conference, including indoor blue dot directions to different
parts of the conference and the schedule of events for each day. This experience is only the
beginning of what the future of Wi-Fi will be for the forthcoming years.
As the principal sponsor of the event, Cisco participation in multiple aspects of the conference. In
addition to the NGH experience, live demonstrations of our Connected Mobile Experience solution
were displayed using the Wi-Fi network, including real-time analytics. We were able to demonstrate
the different traffic patterns and dwell times of mobile devices at the event, which further
demonstrated monetization opportunities for operators.

2. Hanh Tu, Vice President of China at Cisco (shown below) presented an opening keynote defining the
business case for Carrier Grade Wi-Fi. He discussed how consumers are asking for Wi-Fi in specific
vertical markets including, retail, hospitality, travel and healthcare and operators around the world
need to help meet this demand.
Participation included Bob Friday, CTO of Cisco Enterprise Networking Group participated in a panel
session to discuss the existing wireless ecosystem and what it means for the future of Wi-Fi. In
addition, Stuart Taylor, Director of Cisco Consulting Group participated in a panel session discussing
consumer behaviors and what monetization strategies operators can implement. Read Stuart Taylor's
blog post The Next Generation of Wi-Fi Debuts in Beijing.
With the success of this new experience of Wi-Fi in China, the most populated country in the world,
the future of Wi-Fi is only going to get more and more exciting!
Onward and Upward!
For more discussions and topics around SP Mobility, please visit our Mobility Community:
http://cisco.com/go/mobilitycommunity