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Hello from San Francisco!
It’s been a crazy few days here at CTIA, but I wanted to take a few minutes to blog about what I’ve seen on the show floor before my flight home takes off.
CTIA tends to focus on applications, software development, and network architecture, and the show this year was home to some pretty cool stuff. Blackberry announced an application that offers wireless access to TiVo. It basically turns your BlackBerry into a remote that can control your TiVo system from anywhere, anytime. This will come in handy next time I’m on the road and forget to record the Pats game…I still can’t
believe Brady’s out for the season. Eric Zeman from InformationWeek blogged about the TiVo application here
But enough about cool BlackBerry applications. This is a blog about WiMAX! Perhaps the most notable WiMAX related news came out of a keynote address/panel by the CEO’s of Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile
and the CTIA. I regrettably couldn’t make it to the address, but luckily Maggie Reardon from CNET wrote a great piece with all the highlights. Speaking about Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, Maggie writes:
True openness will come with the company’s new 4G WiMax network, which it is building with Clearwire. “From a device perspective, we still have a ways to go,” he said. “Really 4G and the embedded chip model for WiMax will allow people to bring whatever device, a laptop, camera or whatever to the network.”
The other CEO’s also addressed the “open network” issue and while they all agreed the walled gardens should come down, the definitions of “open” and the processes certainly varied. Regardless, it’s a step in
the right direction and I have no doubt the pending roll-out of Sprint/Clearwire WiMAX networks will act as a catalyst.
Lastly, there was a lot of buzz that the Clearwire deal was on track to close this year. Though Sprint and Clearwire announced their partnership a few months back the details are still being worked out. From what I’ve heard, everything is going smoothly and might even be ahead of schedule.
What did you think the highlights of CTIA were? Did any companies disappoint or impress you at the show?
One Comment
Hi Jeff,
I participated in the ‘Utilizing Mobile Broadband’ session that you presented at CTIA.
You really peaked my interest on fixed-location WiMax. You mentioned that you use it at home and your son is taking advantage of it for Xbox Live. That sounded pretty cool to me. I’ve not used a wireless technology that had latency low enough to be useful for gaming.
Unfortunately it looks like Towerstream only offers corporate plans– no personal plans with pricing comparable to DSL and Cable. At least none that I have found on your website.
Is that a direction that Towerstream is going to go in? Or is it just that you get to play with the toys at home because you’re the CEO?