Carl Ford
| 4G is the next evolution in wireless technology. Discover how 4G will transform the wireless industry
4GWE
Is it Smart to call it a SmartPhone?
March 17, 2009The New York Times this week had a great article about the computer chip manufacturers coming into the telecom industry. The article had lots of good references but I think it missed the major part of the story. Phones, even smart phones, are carrier specific controlled solutions. Even in the GSM world the carriers have a tendency to put a customization on their phones.
In the computing industry, the consumer actually has less selection than in the phone industry. However in the phone industry you end up obligated for a while.
The real story with the iPhone is the standardization of single device that is resold by the service providers without the customization. This is more important as we evolve to the wireless broadband.
As the ability to provide applications in the cloud of networks, the device that internetworks is going to be the story.
So why call this a smartphone?
Candidly, on the phone side, David Isenberg's dumb network is being matched like for like. The features of so called smart phones are not the phone side.
Mobile Internet Devices is a term that does not seem to have captured the public vision, but netbooks is a term that has caught on.
To my consumer (untrained eye), a netbook is a retro laptop that gives me the access I want. The price point is under many of the smartphones and if it had a data plan with it, I would be happy.
Maybe we should be looking to blend the terms. Netphones, perhaps.
I like this as a generic term since it does not give me the false expectation that the phone is smart. It also speaks to where we should expect the innovation to occur the blending of the net with the phone.
It also helps put the emphasis on what a network operator should be concentrating on enabling the broadband and blending the web.
It also changes the expectation of the device, since its no longer about the subtlety of a carrier's specifications, but a manufacturer's standardization.
This is also changes the game for manufacturing. A well known cell phone manufacturer makes over 3,000 types of cellphones.
I don't believe this is netphone future. All the peripheral casings you see at kiosk's may have a life, but consumers choices will be based more on their own taste, then the carrier's projection of their choice.
Day 3: The Application Imperative
January 28, 2009
Day 3: The Applications Imperative
I have heard it said that the message is the media! So it's fitting that we will look into the importance of video to kick off the final day of the 4GWE Conference. "TV Dichotomy, Over the Top Versus on the Internet" will be moderated by Eric Burger and will feature Anatoli Levine from Radvision and Jim Machi from Dialogic. This session will explore the question "does communication and entertainment join each other over the top, in the IP stream and into your device, or do they stay separated in delivery". This will be an interesting discussion.
Of course, the delivery of these 4G applications can be done via the end points or through application delivery systems. Bill Kelly of TelcoBridges, Joe Mele of Dialogic and Girish Pathak of ITE Services will be talking about how platforms and the 2.0 applications blend together in a 4G World in the session titled "How do you deliver Wireless Applications in a 4G World" This session will explore the Service Delivery Creation environments that a service provider will have to support in order to deliver and support 4G applications
If applications are going to be so numerous, will specialized devices become the norm? Like a tool belt to a carpenter will 4G wireless connectivity be everywhere and everything? Will "any to any" finally be an accurate portrayal of what devices we will use? . Or will Mobile Internet Devices be chameleon devices that will adapt to the application that is running? Clearwire's Shawn Molodow Patrick Scannell will be showing us the viral opportunity when the Wireless Broaband becomes part of our day-to-day lives. This session is titled "The Road Ahead for Device Design".
I have heard it said that the message is the media! So it's fitting that we will look into the importance of video to kick off the final day of the 4GWE Conference. "TV Dichotomy, Over the Top Versus on the Internet" will be moderated by Eric Burger and will feature Anatoli Levine from Radvision and Jim Machi from Dialogic. This session will explore the question "does communication and entertainment join each other over the top, in the IP stream and into your device, or do they stay separated in delivery". This will be an interesting discussion.
Of course, the delivery of these 4G applications can be done via the end points or through application delivery systems. Bill Kelly of TelcoBridges, Joe Mele of Dialogic and Girish Pathak of ITE Services will be talking about how platforms and the 2.0 applications blend together in a 4G World in the session titled "How do you deliver Wireless Applications in a 4G World" This session will explore the Service Delivery Creation environments that a service provider will have to support in order to deliver and support 4G applications
If applications are going to be so numerous, will specialized devices become the norm? Like a tool belt to a carpenter will 4G wireless connectivity be everywhere and everything? Will "any to any" finally be an accurate portrayal of what devices we will use? . Or will Mobile Internet Devices be chameleon devices that will adapt to the application that is running? Clearwire's Shawn Molodow Patrick Scannell will be showing us the viral opportunity when the Wireless Broaband becomes part of our day-to-day lives. This session is titled "The Road Ahead for Device Design".
Day 2 Architecture and Standards
January 27, 2009Our Friends at Cisco love standards so much they adopt them all! And contrary to popular belief that 4G will be a mass migration, I expect it will be adoption and adaptation of what standards fit best. I think the point will be made today.
Day Two sessions kick off with "Does your device compute or communicate?" David Yedwab will be moderating this session. Panelists include, John Glosser of Sandbridge, one of the few companies focused on 4G chipsets, and Paul Tornatto of Skycross, a company focused on the antenna side. Using Orthogonal Frequency Division makes antenna usage and processing, a collaborative balance. I expect this discussion to show that processing will be the driver for 4G devices. However, it may turn out that so much processing has to be done, that communication will have to be the focus.
Running alongside this session, Liliane Offredo-Zreik, Verizon's Bill Goodman, Richard Brennan of Huawei and Chris Ebert of Nokia Siemens. will be discussing the role that IMS will play in the 4G evolution. After conversations with my carrier friends, I have been told that the IMS implementation has allowed them to support virtualization of the switches. So while the promise of applications has not been that important, IMS has yielded some benefits and continues to grow.
For the rest of the morning, we will join TMC and attend the Microsoft and Digium keynotes as both of these companies continue to drive the edge of communications with better integration.
Day 1: 4GWE Preview
January 26, 2009
Next week at this time, the discussions will be about the future of policy and protocols in wireless communications.
Here is a preview of Monday's sessions
Fanny Mlinarsky and Brough Turner will start our morning off with a historical discussion about the wireless industry. From cellular to unlicensed this tutorial intends to be inclusive of the spectrum of wireless solutions that can be used to deliver our next generation of wireless abilities.
Jim Baller will be giving us the vision of the Broadband Forum as they impact the Administration's plans to stimulate the economy with new jobs and the opportunity to impact the production of goods and services in the US.
Policy discussions turn to the issues of spectrum and net neutrality. Moderated by Glenn Richards, Todd Daubert and Rick Whitt will be sharing their expectation about problems for policy makers in the next four years.
Here is a preview of Monday's sessions
Fanny Mlinarsky and Brough Turner will start our morning off with a historical discussion about the wireless industry. From cellular to unlicensed this tutorial intends to be inclusive of the spectrum of wireless solutions that can be used to deliver our next generation of wireless abilities.
Jim Baller will be giving us the vision of the Broadband Forum as they impact the Administration's plans to stimulate the economy with new jobs and the opportunity to impact the production of goods and services in the US.
Policy discussions turn to the issues of spectrum and net neutrality. Moderated by Glenn Richards, Todd Daubert and Rick Whitt will be sharing their expectation about problems for policy makers in the next four years.
Waxing, Waning, WiMAX
January 12, 2009Rich has a great post on his blog about the Nokia 800 and it's WiMAX sister the 810. These tablets were great little devices, and it's a shame that Nokia has moved away from the 810, but does that mean that WiMAX is dead and its all LTE?
Here are some anecdotal points to think about?
1) A Nokia employee speaking at PTC in regards to the iPhone said we make 3000 different models for our customers the carriers. And they do but it's a baseline design with modifications for the carriers who all see themselves as unique. Nokia has been having a lot of internal debate about trying to have a more direct relationship with the end user. With the economy being this bad, the battle seems to be in favor of keeping the existing carriers happy.
2) Intel in its earnings wrote down their billion-dollar investment in Clearwire. Now most of that was a paper transaction representing the lack of interest in the stock (CLWR) on Wall Street. Time Warner also impaired their valuation. The question is it a sign of the times or a sign of their moving away from WiMAX.
3) Intel's vision for WiMAX has been about a category they call Mobile Internet Devices [MID] and they showed some prototypes in the past that were the equivalent of auto show dream cars. But they never got the commitment to production.
Is Evolution just a slower form of Revolution?
December 17, 2008
Today's Wall Street Journal warns about the issues facing Clearwire in building out there nationwide network. The question of their readily available of $3.2B capital and whether they will need to put in two or three more times that to roll out nationwide.
Ben Wolfe indicated he was willing to grow based on revenue in a scaled down approach if the markets were not available to him, and the possibility of selling spectrum was hinted at.
I am not sure if Clearwire can have the same strategy as some of the nationwide fiber networks had of selling off portions of the spectrum to fund their own deployment, but recently people have been talking to me about shared spectrum strategies. Mostly about White space, but we can make the case for these kind of strategies for Clearwire.
Remember also the investors intend to use Clearwire as a wholesaler / whitelabel for some of their product. That could be another way to access capital and grow without impacting the capital.
All of this said still begs the question? What is the window of opportunity for WiMAX? Massive roll out ahead of the LTE deployments of Verizon and ATT or tactical and slower deployments based on market driven opportunities?
Clearwire representatives like Shawn Molodow who will speak at our event sounds very agressive. But like a Texas Holdem game the river card is where the pay off occurs.
Ben Wolfe indicated he was willing to grow based on revenue in a scaled down approach if the markets were not available to him, and the possibility of selling spectrum was hinted at.
I am not sure if Clearwire can have the same strategy as some of the nationwide fiber networks had of selling off portions of the spectrum to fund their own deployment, but recently people have been talking to me about shared spectrum strategies. Mostly about White space, but we can make the case for these kind of strategies for Clearwire.
Remember also the investors intend to use Clearwire as a wholesaler / whitelabel for some of their product. That could be another way to access capital and grow without impacting the capital.
All of this said still begs the question? What is the window of opportunity for WiMAX? Massive roll out ahead of the LTE deployments of Verizon and ATT or tactical and slower deployments based on market driven opportunities?
Clearwire representatives like Shawn Molodow who will speak at our event sounds very agressive. But like a Texas Holdem game the river card is where the pay off occurs.
Feedback from Friends LTE Advanced vs WiMAX
December 5, 2008
A recent conversation with a Sprint/Clearwire friend, and confirmed 4GWE (http://www.4gwe.com/) speaker, led to a discussion of the role of the wireless device in the 4G network of the future. His take on this was fairly straightforward - service for WiMAX devices will be cheaper and the devices will be based on open access to the full use of the Internet for communication and entertainment applications. It is the belief of Sprint/Clearwire that these WiMAX devices, with their ability to access high speed mobile broadband applications, will clearly be the winner in consumer and enterprise adoption.
This email I shared with friends yesterday, got some interesting responses. This one from a friend who has been in the Wireless device manufacture space for ages was a great example. It started simple.
Friend:> Dream on baby !
To which I replied.
Santa is coming in 20 days ;<).
Seriously, for a moment given your history, give me your opinion how important is the PAPR issue and is SC-FDMA the way that LTE Advanced wins?
When I look at all those WiMAX dongles connecting to PC's I think the premise for some of the debate is wrong.
What do you see? Are MIDs viable? Can I expect to see no innovation in batteries?
And the push back came in this way.
Friend:> First: What is 4G ? Pls define what you are talking about !
This email I shared with friends yesterday, got some interesting responses. This one from a friend who has been in the Wireless device manufacture space for ages was a great example. It started simple.
Friend:> Dream on baby !
To which I replied.
Santa is coming in 20 days ;<).
Seriously, for a moment given your history, give me your opinion how important is the PAPR issue and is SC-FDMA the way that LTE Advanced wins?
When I look at all those WiMAX dongles connecting to PC's I think the premise for some of the debate is wrong.
What do you see? Are MIDs viable? Can I expect to see no innovation in batteries?
And the push back came in this way.
Friend:> First: What is 4G ? Pls define what you are talking about !
