Although China's WLAN construction has grown rapidly, the country still lagged behind many developed countries, Zeng said.

"European countries, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, took the lead in the world's WLAN industry. The North American countries also showed a robust development," Zeng added.

According to a Strategy Analytics report, China already has the highest number of Wi-Fi equipped homes in the world but the country's vast population means that its Wi-Fi penetration was just 21.8 percent, or 15th among the world's nations, by the end of 2011.

South Korea, where ubiquitous broadband also means a corresponding bump in home Wi-Fi usage, topped the list and had a Wi-Fi penetration rate of 80.3 percent in the period. The figures for the United Kingdom, Germany and France all stood above 70 percent, the report said.

However, Edgar Figueroa, chief executive officer of the Wi-Fi Alliance, said Wi-Fi has become increasingly popular in China and it will become a necessary part of people's everyday lives.

"At first, people may have a connection with Wi-Fi at their workplace but now Wi-Fi enters their personal lives. They use Wi-Fi to browse news, receive emails and log into social networking platforms," Figueroa said in an interview with yesky.com, a Chinese IT website.

Strategy Analytics predicted China will have added another 110 million Wi-Fi households by 2016. "China alone will account for 31 percent of total Wi-Fi household growth over the next five years," said Kantideep Thota, an analyst for Strategy Analytics, in a research note.

shenjingting@chinadaily.com.cn

 

Related Readings:

Getting online while on the move

Mounting calls for free access to Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi firm looks to hotels, universities

WiFi to cover all Shanghai by 2013 end

China Unicom to help digitize Sichuan