CTIA

Anybody interested in the mobile industry at all should read these two posts:

1. Walt Mossberg writes a brilliant commentary on the American wireless industry entitled "Free My Phone". Walt Mossberg is exactly right and a hero to us all.

2. Former NFL pretty boy, non tech professional, ex-politician and current CTIA president Steve Largent writes a shameful response to Mr. Mossberg's brilliance. Steve Largent is a paid lobbyist monkeyboy of the big American wireless carriers.

Steve, Walt is right, the rest of the mobile world is laughing at you, except for Canada. We are in the same boat, maybe worse, at least you have iPhone:( For a further breakdown of the exchange, check out this commentary by Phoneboy.

Anyway, what can you do about it? You can make a stink. If you are Canadian you can join the class action against the carriers for their ridiculous service license charges. If you are anybody else you can join MobileFreedom.org and pray for GoogleTel.

Thank you for reading my completely unbiased opinions.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist 

Yesterday TechCrunch reported that the FCC had released the auction rules for the 700MHz spectrum in their post FCC Fails To Mark Its Place in History. Indeed, GigaOm reckons that Google was awarded half a win in their battle to ensure Open Devices, Open Applications, Open Services, and Open Networks for this prized frequency band. What does it all mean? Well, the ruling in favor of only Open Devices and Open Applications is a step in the right direction for American Wireless and should ensure that the big carriers can't sell locked devices as they do on their current networks. Check out the CTIA's response to what openness there will be, bloody fascists. More importantly, what TechCrunch is alluding to with the title of their post is that the FCC missed their chance to turn the American wireless industry upside down. In not mandating Open Services and Open Networks, the FCC is basically blocking any plans Google may or may not have had for GoogleTel. Personally, I was really hoping the FCC would have the guts not to take the middle road here. A new national carrier in the form of GoogleTel would be a joy to see and could only benefit the consumer.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Last week the CTIA issued a report "dispelling wireless myths" of the American mobile industry.  In my opinion, the CTIA is essentially a well funded lobby group for the big American wireless carriers and this report is proof in the pudding.  The Phoneboy wrote an excellent response that all on the verge of brainwashing should read to dispel the real myths of the American Wireless industry.  One point I particularly agree with him on is the quality and availability of the average American handset.  When phone shopping from Europe carriers, I've noticed that there are a plethora of high end choices at relatively low prices.  American's are not exposed to the range of handsets they deserve, particularly those with CDMA carriers.

In other news, CTIA is again spouting off in the hopes of ensuring that Google doesn't get any of the 700MHz spectrum.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Esteemed EQO founder and Chief Architect Jeff LaPorte introduced me to the 700MHz debate earlier this year and I've been following it with interest ever since. To get caught up on the issues, check out this great post from Om Malik: 700MHz Explained in 10 Steps. What interested me was the knowledge that some of my favorite channels in the 52-59 range like The Score, The Food Network (Iron Chef!), and Comedy Central would be booted off the spectrum come 2009. Thank goodness for my new digital box, crisis averted...

Today I came across a flurry of notable news on the subject:

1. Engadget Mobile reports AT&T endorses open access

2. MobileCrunch reports on Google's open access plans

3. MobileCrunch reports CTIA's response to Google's open access plans

Guess where CTIA gets their money? If you guessed the close minded, innovative-less carriers of America then you guessed right. I am completely biased when it comes to the 700MHz spectrum.  I'm all for open access and anyone who truly supports it.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

For as long as I can remember, telecom vendors such as Nortel and Alcatel Lucent have been promoting the Internet Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as the convergence platform for IP multimedia services for wireless and also for wired line networks. Each year at the CTIA Wireless event, these vendors would list the many potential services that IMS would enable such as presence, push-to-talk, instant messenging, and video call. Service providers also eagerly parlay IMS as a way to converge their service delivery platforms and to deliver “rich” IP multimedia services that end users would actually want and pay for. Well, this year at the CTIA Wireless show in Orlando, the industry seemed to finally got tired of the promises of limitless IMS application possibilities and pretty much stopped talking about IMS. Instead of positioning fixed-mobile convergence and next generation convergence services such as push-to-talk, some rather dull terms are being used such as “IP enabling IN services” and “business transformation”.

The acquisition of YouTube by Google must have also shifted the focus of the telecom industry as well. At the CTIA show, there clearly is much greater emphasis on delivering video over fixed and wireless networks. Of course the technology that service providers use to deliver such a service involves components of the IMS framework. But at least this time round, vendors and service providers are starting with the application rather than the application framework.