In 2005, according to a report published by ABI Research, municipal Wi-Fi networks covered only about 1,500 square miles worldwide (3885 square kilometers). Yet by 2010, that figure is expected to increase to 126,000 square miles (over 325,000 square km), an area slightly larger than Poland, or the U.S. state of New Mexico. The bulk of these deployments will take place in North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

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To serve those networks, more than one million wireless mesh routers will be shipped in 2010. The manufacturing revenues from those shipments will exceed U.S.$ 1.2 billion.

The ABI Research study, "Wireless Mesh Networking" examines the trends for metro-scale and campus-scale wireless mesh networking technology on a worldwide basis, and profiles key equipment vendors including BelAir Networks, Cisco Systems, Firetide, MeshDynamics, Motorola, Nortel Networks and more.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York, ABI Research maintains global operations supporting annual research programs, intelligence services and market reports in automotive, wireless, semiconductors, broadband and energy.