CTIA Wireless

San Diego
October 6-9, 2009

CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment, held its Fall show at the San Diego Convention Center, Oct 6-9th. This is the smaller of the two annual CTIA shows and given the economy, had reasonable attendance. However, the Mobile Entertainment Live pre-show event had significantly lower participation. This is mostly due to the fact that mobile entertainment (music, TV, and video) has not seen much growth, despite great promise. So, the industry's focus has shifted to new enterprise frontiers. These include wireless health, smart grids, and the overarching machine to machine markets.

US wireless data service revenues in the first half of this year climbed to $19.4B, a 31% increase year over year, and represented a quarter of all US wireless revenues in that period.

What's hot? Wireless Health, Smart Grid, Machine to Machine (M2M), Open Internet, Android

What's not? Mobile Music, Mobile TV, Windows Mobile (aka Windows Phone)

What's lukewarm? Mobile Advertising, Motorola

New FCC Chairman Showdown with New CTIA Chairman

FCC's new chairman (3 months on the job and occasionally stargazing with his kids using his iPhone), Julius Genachowski gave the opening keynote speech of CTIA. He spoke of the significance of the wireless industry and laid out his four point MBA (Mobile Broadband Agenda):

1. Unleashing spectrum for 4G mobile broadband and beyond: Chairman Genachowski warned of a "looming spectrum crisis" that FCC will be addressing using smart spectrum policies.
2. Removing obstacles to robust and ubiquitous 4G deployment: FCC will streamline creation of new tower siting and speed up various other processes. FCC would like to promote best practices thru an online database.
3. Developing fair rules of the road for an open Internet: Chairman Genachowski made it clear that FCC will push for open Internet. But "one size doesn't fit all". Wired and wireless networks have different constraints and requirements. And, the FCC will take those into account.
4. Empowering consumers by supporting a vibrant, transparent and competitive marketplace

The first two items on FCC's agenda are simpatico with what CTIA wants. However, the last two raise eyebrows with the mobile carriers. The chairman commended Verizon and AT&T for allowing voice over IP applications on their networks.

Following FCC Chairman's keynote, Ralph de la Vega, CEO and president of AT&T mobility and the new CTIA chairman presented the wireless operator side of the story. De la Vega laid out "10 key facts", that proved US wireless market to be fully vibrant and competitive. He argued there is no need for additional regulations. In particular, he was concerned about FCC potentially creating new net neutrality regulations. He stated that rules should not change after spectrum has been sold and before they have been put to use. "What would this say about the integrity of the 700 MHz auction?"

The concerns about net neutrality regulations echoed throughout the remainder of the conference. At a day 2 keynote panel, Qualcomm said mobile carriers should be able to conduct traffic shaping and management of their own networks. They should be able to use policies to handle data-intensive applications based on the amount of resource utilization. However, they should not discriminate/promote one service over another.

Wireless Health: Sizzling Hot!

CTIA dedicated an entire educational track to mobile healthcare. Wireless Health pavilion on the show floor was well-attended with over 2 dozen companies and associations vying for the space.

Azita chaired a panel on day 1 on Telemedicine. The panelists represented RIM, Corventis, Panasonic, Wound Technology Network and Jitterbug. Historically, wireless medicine solutions have been primarily targeted to doctors, healthcare providers, and insurance companies. This focus is now changing and consumers are being targeted as well. A couple of reasons: baby boomers are more interested in taking responsibility for their own health; and doctors and healthcare providers are realizing that the new telehealth solutions require communications with patients in unique and different ways. One key question: Who is ultimately responsible for end to end savings and complete patient care? Each player seems to be focused on a defined area. The end-to-end logistics of serving consumers in healthcare system is daunting. The challenge is not technological, but rather behavioral. There will be "chaos" for the next 20 years. That chaos may prove to be a fertile breeding ground for innovation. Government could play a role here by incentivizing the desired behavior.

The industry should move from device-centric solutions to patient-centric solutions. The existing solutions can create disparate electronic medical records (EMR's) for a single patient, If that patient is being monitored for more than one condition with different devices. Patients should be able to access a comprehensive and understandable view of their own medical and health information.

Telemedicine allows providers to give care across borders and continents. For example, Panasonic is working with doctors at Walter Reed so they can treat patients in distant battlefields of Afghanistan where quality healthcare would be difficult to obtain.

Smart Grid: Government Push Creating a Perfect Storm

There was a big buzz around smart grids and smart energy management. The federal government has allocated $4.5B in stimulus money for smart grid projects. Chris Baker, Senior VP and CIO of San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) and Southern California Gas Co(SoCalGas), keynoted on day 1. He defined smart grid as the convergence of information technologies, grid technologies, process automation, and communications technologies to build intelligence in the grid. Baker stated that SDG&E is the first US utility company that has rolled out 2-way communication with in-home control to over 1 million San Diego gas customers. He enumerated essential wireless elements as: coverage (SDG&E needs to cover over 25,000 square miles), capacity (100 kbps on wireless side and 1 mbps for fixed), performance (need low latency and high capacity), cost, and security. Utility companies in the US will spend around $11B in 2009 on smart grids.

There was also a proactive panel on Smart Energy, featuring Motorola, Bechtel, Cisco, NV Energy, and Kore Telematics. Drivers for smart grid include climate change and energy independence, cost savings for utilities, government stimulus and tax incentives, and aging infrastructure that won't be able to deliver on forecasted customer demands. GE and Whirlpool will be introducing smart appliances that can be controlled remotely (by power companies or customers) to adjust into energy saving mode.

Android Robot Merrily Doing Rounds

Google's Android started off the CTIA week with a big win from Verizon. Google and Verizon agreed to co-develop a range of Android-based phones, netbooks and other devices. Elsewhere, there were plenty of Android-based phones: Motorola showed off Cliq and Dext models. HTC Hero and Samsung Moment are launching with Sprint. Kyocera will be offering an Android device in 2010. All the Android phones we saw aspired to be an iPhone/Blackberry hybrid; with a touch screen display and a slide-out keyboard. Android definitely had a big win. But the phones all looked pretty much the same to us. Motorola is differentiating its Android phones with their Motoblur service layer which integrates contacts, emails, and social media happenings.

Machine to Machine Moving to Top Spot As Person to Person is Saturating

With wireless penetration in US around 90%, mobile carriers are looking into connecting machines to fuel their growth. That is why machine to machine (M2M) segment has experienced a big lift. Verizon recently established a joint venture with Qualcomm, called nPhase, that is focusing in this area. AT&T's CTO, John Donovan remarked about company's new emerging devices configuration lab in Austin, Texas. According to Donovan, AT&T has certified 367 non-stocked devices in 2009, so far. Sprint just reorganized its various efforts into a new M2M unit, focused on enterprise market.

M2M, in general, covers communication between non-phone devices. Specific applications will focus on industry verticals, such as wireless health or telematics.

And One More Thing ...

Qualcomm is "FLO"ing above mobile carriers and going directly to consumers with its FLO TV personal television. The mobile TV device, made by HTC, has a touch screen and is a little bigger and thicker than average smartphones. It will be distributed through big box retailers and online in time for the holiday season. It will cost $249.99 with subscription starting at $8.99 a month, with a 3-year prepaid plan.

App store mania is still going on strong. Every company/brand wants to have a mobile app. Ericsson is offering white-labeled app stores to carriers that claims to support a broad range of platforms and devices. Qualcomm is offering a similar concept with Plaza. HTC says it will not offer an app store.