Exploring the WISP Industry - Swiss Case Study

Self-organized networks might be a disruptive technology in the mobile telecommunication industry, posing a credible threat to the current network operators' dominance of mobile applications and services. Indeed, with the emergence of wireless broadband networks based on clusters of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) hotspots, self-organized networks might become an important alternative to UMTS cellular networks deployed by network operators. The objective of this paper is to investigate the use of WLAN to offer wireless services from a business point of view, assessing the current supply of WLAN services in Switzerland by investigating different kinds of WLAN service providers, analyzing their business models through mini case studies and comparing them to theoretical expectations from literature.