CTIA’s IT & Entertainment show starts tomorrow in San Francisco. However, the “Godfather” of tech industry reporting, Walter Mossberg, decided to rain on the parade before it even starts!
Mossberg’s WSJ column and thoughts are nothing new if you have been following Skype’s Carterfone petition at the FCC (a mobilediner leftover here).
In this instance, Mossberg has tailored his comments for the everyday wireless user and if you don’t follow wireless policy everyday – you might be inclined to believe everything in it.
For instance, Mossberg states that the “federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is opposite of the PC model.” This is not accurate.
It has taken years to build these digital networks (in fact, the FCC is finally allowing wireless carriers to turn off their antiquated analog networks next year) and time to acquire the necessary spectrum (industry worked to free spectrum from DoD and is working to get broadcasters off of 700 MHz) to provide capacity (industry worked hard to get rid of the spectrum cap) to offer next generation services. The future is bright and we will start to see more devices like the iPhone, N95 (and maybe a g phone) come to market. However, a network and capacity must be in place to provide a “wired” broadband experience.
The wireless industry and a business model the carriers have relied on will eventually change. As consumer interest evolves beyond service provider to applications and devices (at the edge of the network) carriers must adapt. The next few months and years will be exciting. Industry is not perfect but I believe the carriers will respond and tackle these challenges. A storm of regulation is on the horizon if they do not…
ibelieve do YOU?
Update – Steve Largent has blogged about the Mossberg column on the CTIA blog.
Dish disclosure – CTIA – the Wireless Association is a client…
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