The future is bright for Wi-Fi mesh networking technology as market watchers predict that equipment sales in the sector will enjoy over 90 per cent growth in 2007.

In-Stat forecasts that strong growth will continue for Wi-Fi mesh access points for the next "several years", and that shipments will grow more than threefold between 2006 and 2011.

Most of that growth is expected to come between 2006 and 2008, and to decline rapidly starting in 2009.

"Cities will continue to deploy municipal mesh networks, but the rate of new deployments after 2008 will slow due to concerns over the business model," said In-Stat analyst Daryl Schoolar.

"Growth in the enterprise market, and the need to replace previously deployed nodes, will help offset the slowdown in shipments to new municipal networks."

According to the In-Stat research, WiMax and cellular will both negatively affect the market as these services target the same nomadic users as public Wi-Fi networks.

• In-Stat report: 2007 Worldwide Wi-Fi Mesh Equipment Market