According to Ben Wolff, the 1st Keynote speaker of the day at CTIA WIRELESS 2009® and co-Chairman of Clearwire, his company plans to roll out 4G WiMAX service to 80+ markets by the end of 2010, which will serve about 120 million people. He framed the success of such a venture by highlighting the history of the Internet, noting that the first “node” of the Internet was actually put in place about 40 years ago. He also reinforced the huge commitment that has been shown over the years -- noting that as our country's Internet usage grew, companies responded swiftly by developing greater networks with greater capabilities. He then stated that from 2005-2012, wireless Internet traffic will have likely increased 1000x fold -- and by 2013, nearly 64% of mobile data traffic by 2013 will be video. And he's right, the progress has been truly remarkable.
He then looked to the future: He explained that as we continue to develop bigger and faster wireless networks over time, people's Internet usage will consequently increase as well. Between 2008-2013, he said that wireless will have likely experienced an increase in usage of at least 66%. He then predicted that this will at least double every year going forward.
Finally, he addressed a simple (yet extremely significant) question: can we keep up with that kind of demand? "The rules are changing – no more is it 'Coverage Coverage Coverage,' now it's 'Capacity Capacity Capacity' -- Capacity is now our dilemma." Stating that 3G technology is of the past, and 4G is the future, he feels that "complete package" (delivering and catering to consumer demand) involves 4 categories – spectrum, technology, network and devices. Ideally, he claimed, each network provider would have access to 100 MHz of spectrum.
Wolff concluded his speech by citing a December 2008 Pew report that we at CTIA also feel is noteworthy when the discussion turns to consumer demand: Pew forecasts that the mobile device will be the premier connection tool to the Internet for most people in the world by 2020 --> In that case, it is incredibly positive that the mobile market continues to be robustly competitive -- this will help ensure that consumer demands of the future will be timely met.
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That said, Mr. Wolff is a true trailblazer.
Let's hope that others follow Mr. Wolff, for the good of the whole wireless sector, and the collective customers that we all serve.
4G networks based upon an end-to-end IP infrastructure should help to significantly lower the inherent cost of delivering high-bandwidth dependent services to customers.