From exhibitors ABBYY USA Software House to Zumobi, CTIA WIRELESS 2008® touched all of the industry bases last week in Las Vegas. Whether you couldn't make it, or maybe missed a session or two after some seriously late night blackjack (oh sure you didn't), you'll want to check out our convention coverage. It includes keynote highlights, backstage interviews, show floor video, convention pics, podcasts and much more. You'll get to catch up on the thoughts of some of the more prominent leaders in the wireless industry, and see some of the new products in action.

One demo that really struck me was Yahoo!Mobile CEO Marco Boerries' display of the voice recognition capability of their new oneSearch 2.0. I've tested it on my Blackberry and I think it's really cool. In fact, I showed it off to a bunch of friends at a high school track meet over the weekend, and we spent an hour trying to stump it. No dice! And coming soon, we'll have our keynote webcast. We include longer, more in-depth excerpts from the presentations, and I'll let you know more about that next week. 

What a great way to spend a few days!

We certainly wrapped up with a bang on the keynote stage, as former presidential candidate John Edwards made big news. When asked on-stage by CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent whether he would consider being the Democrat party’s vice-presidential nominee, he said…. Well, see it for yourself. Just click on Keynote Q&A on Day Three, and then Vice-Presidential thoughts. You’ll see Senator Edwards is pretty clear on the matter! Edwards and fellow former senator and prez contender Fred Thompson were great with their remarks on presidential politics and what wireless is doing to the process. You’ll definitely want to check out all that they had to say.

In the big picture, CTIA WIRELESS® shows have always been a popular place for major mobile industry announcements, and this show was no exception. This week saw Chairman Martin declare his intention to dismiss the Skype petition and the debut of the cool Sprint – Samsung Instinct.  On the applications and software sides, we had Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 and Yahoo’s One Search 2.0 introduced.

We’ve had great keynotes from some of the most influential player in and around the mobile space.

And we can’t forget about the exhibitors. Some of the most creative and original companies in the world showed off their latest technology.   

We have had a ball this week, and we hope you have, too.
 
See you in 'Frisco in September!!

Just ran back from this morning’s keynote. This one was great.  While the topics of discussion were very often only tangentially related to wireless, I think there are some good lessons in the words of both Senator Edwards and Senator Thompson.

Senator Edwards discussed the role news coverage plays in shaping perception.  He talked about how it is the coverage of something that shapes one’s perception, and how that coverage can sometimes ignore the reality of a situation.  I think there is a wireless tie-in here.  So often, the only news we hear about wireless is negative – but the fact is that people are happy with their wireless service. According to a recently released poll, more than 9 out of 10 consumers are satisfied with their wireless service. I mean, a 90% success rate on anything is impressive. It’s even more so when you consider that the industry is serving hundreds of millions of Americans every day. The fact and reality is that the wireless industry has an impressive record of delivering to meet the demands of the American consumer.    

Then Senator Thompson came to the stage. He discussed a number of issues, but what really resonated with me  was Senator Thompson’s message with regards to “Disagreeing without being disagreeable” – this message has real application in the current, and evolving wireless policy ecosystem.  As the wireless space evolves, we are facing more and more issues that get people more and more energized.  That’s simply the reality.  Net neutrality is a perfect example of this energized environment.  Very often NN proponents are so emotionally involved in the issue that it’s difficult for them to step back and have a more low-key dialogue.  In order to have constructive discussions about the merits and facts of this issue, those on both sides need to consider those facts objectively.   You can be impassioned without being unreasonable, but it’s tough to do that when the volume is turned up loud.  I think we all would do well to “turn down the volume” in order to ultimately sit across the table from one another and seriously discuss the facts.

This morning we’re due to hear from former Sens. Thompson and Edwards.  It will be thought-provoking and interesting to hear both of their takes on the current Presidential election, as well as their thoughts on the inevitable intersection of technology and government. 

Note that the keynote begins at 9:30 – this is a change from the usual 9AM starting time.

Just came from the tax policy panel.  A few thoughts:

1) The fact that wireless tax rates average more than twice the average tax rate of other goods and services is simply unfair to the 255+ million American wireless consumers.

2) Wireless taxes are regressive.  That means that they affect lower-income users more than they affect those who are better-off.  What it also means is that these taxes disproportionately discourage wireless use by those that stand the most to benefit from them.

3) There is something of a disconnect between the wishes of some state governments to see wireless broadband build-out in their respective states and the necessary tax incentives/ removal of disincentives that would encourage such build out. If states’ are really serious about promoting the continued deployment of next-generation networks, their tax code should reflect that priority.

4) State tax codes are old – they were developed for the manufacturing economy of the early 20th century.  States should revamp their tax systems in order to acknowledge the shift to this new, information economy. In doing that, they would promote the well-being of these new 21rst century businesses as well encouraging their proliferation. 

That’s it from me for the day – see you all tomorrow for Day 3.

The keynotes were kicked off today with Steve Largent and Marty Cooper discussing the first cellphone call made about 35 years ago – it was  a very nice thing. They then presented one another with awards for their respective contributions to the wireless space.  

Next up was Arun Sarin, the CEO of Vodafone explaining how he sees the wireless ecosystem evolving.  It’s no surprise that he sees the mobile broadband experience as revolutionary for the industry.  Arun explained that he feels a single 4Gstandrard would be best in that it would allow greater efficiencies in order to realize greater economies of scale.  That’s an interesting, if not unexpected, take.  He also cited the need for effective network management as the on-network traffic continues to increase. 

Next up on the Keynote Stage was Marco Boerries, President of Yahoo! Mobile.  While there he debuted Yahoo’s new mobile search function, One Search 2.0.  This function incorporates many of the functionalities we have come to expect from the search engines we use on our PCs.  There was also a very cool demo of the voice recognition capabilities of the function.  Something that I found particularly interesting was Boerries thinking that this new mobile, open ecosystem will be too big for 1 one dominant player to emerge,  I think he’s right about that – these new open platforms will mean opportunities for a multitude of different players. 

Following Marco was an infrastructure roundtable featuring the CEO’s of Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nortel and moderated by VZW’s Lowell McAdam.  Their conversation was an interesting one, dealing with the new implications on network providers in an open, mobile broadband world.

I’m off to the show floor – see you out there!

After a fun and interesting Day 1, I thought I might provide some thoughts and reflections on my experience.
 
Some of the most thought-provoking experiences from yesterday included two policy panels that I attended, "Mobile Industry Hot Topics" and "US Wireless and the World."
 
A common theme that I heard explicitly discussed at the Hot Topics panel, and as an under-current in the “US and the World” panel, was that of wireless national framework.
 
CTIA has researched international regulatory systems, and according to our findings, the US's system of both federal and state-by-state wireless regulatory authority is unique. 
 
The possibility of expanded state regulatory authority over wireless is one that simply doesn't make sense. Wireless’ defining characteristic is its mobility -- because of that, wireless is inherently an interstate, not intrastate service. I certainly appreciate the need for state governments to enforce the generally applicable laws and look out for the best interest of their citizens. But, that being said, to allow expanded state-specific regulatory authority over a mobile, interstate service might bring with it unintended consequences.
 
By subjecting wireless carriers to 50 different regulatory systems, we potentially jeopardize the incredible levels of investment and innovation that have characterized our industry.
 
Think about that -- the innovation and investment of the domestic wireless industry is among the most impressive in the world. The regulations of today might not be relevant to the technological realities of tomorrow. To allow short-sighted regulatory preferences to potentially affect this evolving, constantly-changing industry brings with it the possibility of short-changing the American wireless consumer by depriving them new services and technologies.

Click here to listen to our "US Wireless and the World" podcast!

After a busy and hectic Day 1, I’m pretty excited for this, Day 2 of CTIA WIRELESS 2008®. We have a lot planned for the day – keynotes include Marco Boerries, President of Yahoo! Mobile and Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone. It’ll be great to get these two mobile leaders take on the currents and future trends in the mobile ecosystem.

Following Arun, Lowell McAdam will be hosting a roundtable with some of the most prominent infrastructure companies in the industry. Considering the current, and continued surge in mobile data use, a sound wireless infrastructure and network is going to be more important than ever. 

After the keynotes, the show floor will be open to show-off the latest and greatest of the wireless world.

See you at the keynotes.