Small US firms on wireless spending binge

Small and medium-sized businesses in the United States are expected to virtually double their spending on wireless services this year, according to a recent report from The Yankee Group.

The wireless services market for smaller firms is expected to grow 93 per cent in 2004, compared with last year. That represents average spending of $356,000 per company for wireless services, according to the report.

Eugene Signorini, a wireless analyst at Yankee, said: "I would imagine that wireless, in general, is displacing landline usage, as the [small and midsize] market becomes increasingly mobile. A smaller company generally has a higher percentage of mobile workers, because they usually require more of their workers to be out supporting customers."

On average, 52 per cent of employees at small and medium-sized companies are mobile, spending at least 20 per cent of their time away from their primary work site, Signorini said. That compares with 47 per cent of workers last year. At large companies, about 39 per cent of the workforce is mobile, according to the survey.

Most of the wireless services deployed by smaller firms related to voice rather than data, Signorini said.

"Data will increase as a piece of the pie, but I don't imagine it ever growing larger than voice," Signorini said. "We see greater interest in developing wireless data solutions among large businesses than small ones." Twenty-four per cent of large businesses are launching or testing wireless WANs [wide-area networks], compared with 12 per cent of small and midsize businesses, he said.

In the next two years, however, the small business market could see an additional 22 per cent of companies launching or testing wireless WAN, according to the survey.

Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com