Nokia’s N900 Push Award Winner
In “pushing” the bounds of innovation, Nokia recently held a contest to see if folks could create something special with the open nature of the N900. They received hundreds of entries and I had the opportunity to interview the winners – Brett and Sarah Peterson - at Nokia’s booth at CTIA Las Vegas. Not only did they develop a very cool bike dashboard but they won $10,000!
Check it out -
As always, it is great being in Las Vegas for another CTIA show. This industry is happening and I’m really excited to learn more about some of the new gadgets and products on the horizon. With that in mind, I thought I’d hear more about the evolving nature of this industry and it is this evolution that makes it quite exciting. However, the major message coming out of CTIA, in my opinion, is much more policy focused than usual — “We need more spectrum.”
Ralph de la Vega (CEO, AT&T Mobility) kicked off the start of the show with a snapshot of where the industry is and what will be needed (more spectrum). Mr. de la Vega highlighted the fact that the United States leads the world in 3G subscribers. It is estimated that the U.S. has 117 Million 3G subscribers with Japan (101M) and South Korea trailing (40M). With subscribers in mind, Mr. de la Vega discussed how much the industry is spending and plans to spend on wireless infrastructure. Specifically, he projected that the industry will spend $22-$23 Billion in 2010.
After providing this snapshot of the industry , he addressed the critical question of whether or not the industry can handle the growing appetite for mobile broadband. Accordingly, he offered up a blue print for taking on this issue.
(1) “increasing available spectrum” – This point has been hammered everywhere. On that note, the FCC recently called for 500 MHz to be available for wireless broadband over the decade and that 300 MHz be available within the next 5 years.
(2) “accelerating network efficiency” – In this instance, Mr. de la Vega discussed LTE and the network efficiencies that can be derived from that technology – it is about 2.5X more efficient that HSPA.
(3) “capitalizing on Wi-Fi and Femto” – I don’t have too much to add on this point. Offloading traffic is an important part of the solution. I’ve always been a big fan of Wi-Fi.
(4) “ensuring application efficiency” – This is a point that is starting to be repeated more often and it is a good thing. Developers need to be cognizant of the amount of bandwidth a particular application is going to have on the network.
Spectrum is the lifeblood of this industry and we need more capacity to keep the momentum going in this space. The FCC’s efforts in the National Broadband Plan is a great start. However, there needs to be more talk about spectral efficiency as we get ready for the long battle ahead to free up more capacity.
Congress set to review National Broadband Plan…
I’m still chewing on the National Broadband Plan that was released yesterday by the FCC. It is quite large and I’m focusing on the spectrum roadmap set by the Commission.
In any case, Congress is going to review the plan next week. With regard to the Senate, they will hold a Full Committee Hearing on Tuesday, March 23. The House will hold a Subcommittee Hearing on Thursday, March 25.
Enjoy!
I’m chewing on a number of thoughts this morning and I thought I should share them…
Blogs have influence — I subscribe to an email based clipping service pertaining to the wireless industry. I’ve noticed this before but it is becoming more and more the norm – the highlighted clips are from tech bloggers. I know many folks in the diner are not shocked by this news. However, there are still tons of people in the District of Communications that haven’t figured it out. Not only are many journalists getting their stories from bloggers but the impact some of these stories have had on public policy decisions are significant.
EVOLVE — According to GigaOm, a much tweeted quote from author Clay Shirky’s speech at SXSW was: “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.” What a fantastic quote! I can think of so many examples but this may whet my appetite for a future post in the diner.
Location, Location, Location — The battle of the “check-ins” is quite fierce and the NY Times did a nice little story this morning. Although sharing my location information is not my thing, there is huge potential in this space. Small businesses really have a nice opportunity to connect at a more intimate level with consumers and consumers can reap the benefits of being “a regular.” I look forward to seeing more marketing efforts around location based social networking.
It has been about three months since I cooked up some food in the diner and there are a number of reasons for the stale food. I’ll spare you all the details. However, with CTIA’s 2010 show on the horizon, I’m going to get back in the saddle and cover some of the action in Las Vegas.
On a related note, I often connect with many of you in some other social spaces online (Twitter, Facebook, Amplify). Please feel free to follow or connect with me there. As I have mentioned previously, time becomes an issue when running a small company and being involved with a growing internet start-up company. I still like to discuss the issues but I’m doing it in other places that allow me to quickly engage on a more regular basis than the diner.
Thus, I’ll be here when conferences are coming up or to give deeper insights on an issue (if time allows for it). Otherwise, please catch me on Twitter, Facebook, or Amplify.
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