Hoteliers who aspire to be on the cutting edge of technology are looking at upgrading their wireless networks now that a new international technical standard is on the cusp of being finalized. While formal approval of the new standard is not expected until June 2009, The Oriental, Bangkok, for example, already has deployed the upgrade in an effort to get a jump on the competition.

The new standard, known as 802.11n (IT insiders often refer to it as just “N”), will essentially double—and could potentially quadruple—available bandwidth compared with the existing standards, significantly altering the expectations of what hotel staffs can achieve through wireless capabilities. Although the specifications of N could change before they are finalized (likely in November, with mainstream adoption expected about eight months later), most experts agree that changes will be negligible.

Officials at The Oriental certainly hope that is the case, as the property in January became the first in the world to deploy N, leveraging Cisco’s compatible prototype Aironet 1250 Series Access Points throughout the property. It is a somewhat risky investment—a module change would substantially add to the overall installation price of US$58,000—but in the meantime, the hotel is a destination for legions of high-spend early adopters.

“This day’s business travelers demand more than simple connectivity,” says Hotel Manager Paul Jones. “They value voice, video and data options which are efficient, convenient, highly secure and, most important, can be accessed anytime, anywhere in the hotel.”

The hotel does not anticipate enhanced revenue as a direct result of the network upgrade, though the indirect benefits of guest satisfaction and exposure within the community of early adopters convinced hotel officials that the investment is a wise one, says Vachara Ratanasupakorn, Mandarin Oriental’s country manager for technology. “A few guests already use Wi-Fi with 802.11n, since new-release notebooks in the market already have it built-in,” Ratanasupakorn says. “One of our guests saw the equipment and asked whether this was the new technology of 802.11n, and he was very excited to use it.”

This is not the first wireless standard upgrade, and it certainly will not be the last. What makes N so significant is the leap it makes in terms of data transfer speed, bandwidth capacity and consistent coverage. “If you look across the history of Wi-Fi, this is really the next step, but it somewhat breaks away from the pack in terms of existing Wi-Fi standards,” says Chris Kozup, senior manager for mobility solutions at Cisco. “We can go so much faster, but the part that often gets overlooked is the enhancement to reliability and predictability that the platform enables.”

The linchpin of N is a transmission technique known as MIMO, which stands for multiple-input multiple-output. MIMO employs numerous access points throughout a property that act as pseudo-satellites, deflecting the coverage signal around barriers and creating property-wide signal coverage that is virtually uninterrupted. In other words, no more dead zones. N has an indoor signal range of roughly 70 m (230 ft.), while most current wireless signals max out around 38 m (125 ft.).

Yet N offers more than just improved coverage—it also alleviates the strain on networks by bandwidth-intensive applications, like streaming video. N has the capacity for 74 megabits per second, while the wireless standard currently in place—802.11g—is only handles 19 megabits per second.

The implications of that capacity leap are many. Along with a faster, more robust signal, hotels will be able to run many more wireless back-of-house applications on the same network, and at a higher quality. Staff voice-over-IP systems will become a realistic option for a greater percentage of hotels, and substantial digital surveillance systems could be installed without needing to run cables all over the property.

Wireless point-of-sale systems and wireless check-in kiosks could be supported via standard N-enabled Wi-Fi networks. Whereas hotels today are severely limited about what can be transmitted to wireless signage and display monitors—oftentimes a wireless display is merely a glorified PowerPoint document—N allows richer content, such as streaming video.

“N is going to take off in the hospitality industry. It’s just a matter of time,” says Ted Watson, director of hospitality solutions for Colubris Networks. “The real value comes in with the back-office applications.”

The main impetus for widespread N upgrades will come from consumers. With formal adoption of the standard still more than a year away, the majority of guests will not come to expect the faster network until probably 2010 or possibly 2011. Still, early adopters will be clamoring for it as soon as this year, as manufacturers are already beginning to produce pre-N products.

For hotels looking to cultivate a tech-savvy image, it may make sense to jump the gun on formal approval of N as The Oriental has done, says Gregg Hodges, president of networks vendor iBahn. And since N has backward compatibility—that means it can accommodate computers with earlier Wi-Fi standards as well—there is no real risk of getting too far ahead of slower adopters, at least once the N standard is finalized.

But what does N mean for the average hotelier who is not necessarily appealing to the ultra-tech-savvy consumer? Most likely, properties in the mid-scale segment on up, located in competitive markets, will be obliged to make the upgrade soon after N becomes mainstream in mid-2009.

“Hotels that have wireless today, even in a small size, are going to be looking at tens of thousands of dollars they will have to spend,” Hodges says. Given that expense and knowledge that even this upgrade will not last forever, might it make better sense to sit out the N revolution? Probably not. “You run the risk that if the hotel across the street does it and you don’t, what is it worth to you to retain that meetings business?” Hodges says. “Putting that revenue at risk because you didn’t spend the money, what is that worth? Waiting five or six years to upgrade would put you at a great disadvantage within your competitive set.” l

Direct comments to: adam.kirby@reedbusiness.com