The disruptive potential of Wi-Fi in the German hotspot market

The disruptive potential of Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) is investigated in an empirical study of the German public hotspot market in 2003-2006. The results of our study suggest that primarily the incumbent Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have taken advantage of the opportunity provided by Wi-Fi and the commercial hotspot market and dominated this submarket of wireless/mobile data services in Germany. Therefore, we categorise Wi-Fi as a sustaining technology based on the disruptive technology theory by Christensen (1997). These findings contradict the earlier predictions of Christensen et al. (2004) and others regarding Wi-Fi and suggest that the business model of stand-alone Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) will not be sustainable given the trend in the German commercial public hotspot market.