Wireless WAN Is Ready to Overtake Wired WAN

The “2019 State of the WAN Report,” sponsored by Cradlepoint and conducted by IDG, surveyed 505 mid-size and larger enterprises with 500 to 10,000 employees to determine the changing role of LTE—and anticipated impact of 5G—in the enterprise as organizations adjust their WAN strategies to deal with the implications of cloud, mobile and Internet of Things (IoT).


The research revealed that nearly two thirds (62 percent) of the respondents plan to increase LTE usage within their WAN in the next three years. The shift to wireless is accelerating as well with an overwhelming majority (90 percent) of respondents citing that Gigabit LTE is likely to affect their WAN roadmap while one-third already anticipate that 5G will have the same effect.


The study also highlights that enterprises are using their WANs to connect more people, places and things. On average, enterprises connect 2.7 different type of endpoints, including branch locations (77 percent), IoT devices (68 percent), fleet vehicles (51 percent) and pop-up networks (50 percent). Nearly a quarter of respondents (22 percent) are connecting all of these different endpoints.


The "2019 State of the WAN report" shows that WWAN is poised to take over T1 lines as the WAN technology if choice in the U.S.

T1 Line 0%
LTE/4G 0%
Broadband 0%
Carrier Ethernet 0%
MPLS 0%
VSAT 0%

Source: 2019 State of the WAN Report, IDG & Cradlepoint.

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