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There’s a growing demand for Internet access, with the world’s usage to include 48 percent of the global population this year. In many countries, the access to an adequate Internet connection will come up short. In 2017 and beyond, the role of fixed wireless will become more important, making it possible to meet the needs of consumers and businesses.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs are becoming common in many corporations. IT divisions like them because it reduces wear and tear on the company’s equipment, and employees like the comfort of using their own devices. The main challenge of such programs, though, is managing the increased pressure on the company’s network.

It’s expected that the number of Internet users around the world will reach 3.6 billion of the population, or 48 percent, this year. The demand for a high speed connection challenges the copper and fiber options and their ability to reach both dense urban and rural areas. For companies looking for ample bandwidth and flexibility, the speed and scalability of copper and fiber come up short, too.

Fixed wireless is a kind of Internet service that is accomplished with radio signals. It offers many of the same things wired broadband offers -- without the need to run cable. There are many reasons to use fixed wireless service. If you're considering utilizing it for your business, there are a few things you need to know.

Before the cloud brought about software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN), but after frame relay stopped being the standardized WAN technology, most enterprises used multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) to connect to their WAN. MPLS is still the most popular form of WAN connectivity today, but with data- intensive applications on the rise this may be changing.

Back when cloud-based systems were first getting started, they were looked at the same way someone would look at, say, jumping the Grand Canyon on a soapbox derby racer built by a particularly bright seven-year-old. It was a clever enough plan, but almost insane in execution. Who would put valuable proprietary data in the cloud, where theoretically anyone could get at it? 

It seems like a nightmare scenario, but it’s a waking reality for most businesses. A survey by Adweek shows 90% of all companies experience unexpected downtime, and as many as a third experience downtime every month.

Without bandwidth, there's a lot of life online that just doesn't get done. Sure, no one thought too much about bandwidth in the text-heavy, low-resolution days of online living, but today, it's just impossible not to. With video, conferencing, analytics tools, and all the other potential uses of bandwidth, we need it now more than ever. The financial market is no exception.

Most everyone who works online to any degree already knows how important it is to have a backup system. Whether that backup is an alternative connection or a drive to the nearest coffee shop with Wi-Fi, having that backup can save a lot of business. Fixed wireless is often considered an excellent backup, but fixed wireless is more than just a backup solution. Having that backup can save companies a lot of revenue and headaches.