Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications

Starting a Revolution

Posted: 03/11/08 by Jo-Anne Basile

It was a cool day in October 1981 when they flipped the switch in Chicago, beginning communications revolution for Americans, which we call cell phones.

It boggles the mind to think about where we've come in these 27 years. The number of users is staggering: today there are nearly 250 million users in the U.S. and 3.3 billion wireless devices in use on the planet, and with more than 1,000 activated each minute. What's even more amazing is how many different uses of wireless devices we have today. In a little more than 25 years the use of wireless devices has evolved from the simple voice-communicating, the mundane-to the sophisticated transport of critical data and video - medical, financial and more. Wireless also has the unique honor of providing the link that will fuel economic development for nations throughout the world. Yes, indeed, given the opportunity, humans have discovered endless ways to make use of wireless technology. Although the illustrations are too numerous to list, if we focus on a few, it helps put the communications revolution squarely in place.

A particularly good example of how wireless creates change is how it can jumpstart lesser developed nations into the global marketplace. Confronted with the need for a reliable communications network where little or no infrastructure existed, countries have turned to wireless as the most efficient and economical network to build quickly. This happened in the mid-1990's when many of the Eastern block nations, newly freed from the old Soviet Union, turned to wireless as the only communications tool that could link businesses with vital opportunities. Now, with the ability to connect reliably and quickly to the outside world economic opportunities previously closed off became open.

In less than three decades, about half the world's population uses wireless technology in big and small ways every day. Wireless is not only a revolution in technology but it has created a revolution wherever it has gone. Stay tuned to this spot as we explore more of the "revolution" that wireless built in future blogs.

Innovative loan program aiding in rural broadband deployment

Posted: 03/04/08 by Diane Smith

The Washington Post recently reported that one of the first things new Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer did was to make it a priority to ensure the Rural Utility Service improved its loan process so companies can provide broadband to rural America.
 
It is just this type of program that, if properly implemented, is government at its best. Thanks to this partnership between the Agriculture Department and private industry that began in the 1920s, rural America has clean drinking water, electricity and telephone service.
 
For nearly a century, the Agriculture Department and the private sector have worked to ensure rural America has basic infrastructure, and in the 21st century broadband is a basic service. For small communities to thrive, being connected to the rest of the world is a necessity and broadband is their link to economic development, educational opportunities, and even opera.
 
Yet, as much as these communities may want something, the economic incentives must be there to deploy the infrastructure, whether it be fiber, cable or wireless towers. It is expensive to serve these areas and the return on that investment can be a long time in coming in sparsely populated areas. That is a tricky proposition for any company seeking traditional financing, where a return on the investment is often expected within a 12-month period. Because that isn’t always possible, the loan program made available by the Rural Utility Service is very important.
 
Take for example, Montana, where less than a million people live in a state that spans more than 147,000 square miles. Wireless broadband technology can be a cost-effective way to deploy broadband and in some cases it may be the most feasible way given the terrain and physical conditions of the land.
 
No matter which technology is being used, it takes significant investments to build broadband networks and offer service.  I wish Secretary Schafer luck in his efforts to make the RUS loans more readily available to those who want to offer broadband in rural areas.
 
This is the way government should be involved in the wireless industry – making available the needed resources to those who can deliver the much-needed services.

Free wireless broadband comes to Houston

Posted: 02/29/08 by Hiram 'Art' Contreras

Thanks to Technology for All, 4,000 people in a low-income, inner city neighborhood in Houston have access to the internet in their homes for the first time. Whether the service was available is moot, because many residents of this neighborhood simply couldn’t afford the service. Thankfully, Technology for All in partnership with Rice University stepped in to build a state-of-the-art wireless Internet network that is free for residents of the Pecan Park neighborhood.

Based on the success of this program in this southeast Houston neighborhood, Technology for All plans to roll out additional wireless networks to 10 other communities throughout Houston. Ultimately 500,000 low-income residents will have access to free internet service.

Through a series of antennas, residents have access to internet service that can reach greater than 1 Mbps. The goal is to stimulate the economy in these areas, as well as to build a research test bed for Rice University students to use in writing their master thesis.

Check out the story on the local TV station’s web site to hear more about this new wireless network.

Not only can this wireless network create economic opportunities, but it can also help young students in these neighborhoods do better in school so that they can improve their economic opportunities later in life.

Having access to technology and the wealth of information available online will help these young students succeed in school. Inner city kids deserve to have the same opportunities that kids in affluent suburbs have.

Of course, the families need computers to even use the internet service and luckily Technology for All has “A Mouse in Every House” program that it runs in partnership with Habitat for Humanity to provide computers to low-income residents.

As a community, we must never lose sight of the fact that it is through the accessing of information and ultimately enhancing educational opportunity that is the key for our young people to reach their fullest potential.

Metamorphosis

Posted: 02/27/08 by Jonathan Spalter

met·a·mor·pho·sis

1. A transformation, as by magic or sorcery.

Havana has given us much more than cigars.  It was there, in 1848, that Antonio Meucci filed and was awarded patent (caveat #3335) for his invention of the telephone.  Meucci never commercialized his vision.  He lost his patent because he was not able to pay renewal fees.  Though Meucci died in poverty, his vision, some 160 years, has so transformed how human beings work, play, learn, and earn, that it truly must be described as a metamorphosis.

How else but by some magic or sorcery could the original idea of point to point wired voice communications have evolved to our current world of wireless, ubiquitous, and mobile connectivity?  Today, there are several nations which have more cell phones than citizens.  Some two billion people today have subscriptions for mobile services.  These devices, and the applications, services, content, and community they embody, are themselves platforms for the idea of convergence in all its forms – technological, commercial, cultural, and educational.

Their potential for human advancement and engagement are only just being conceived.  Most obviously, our mobile devices have become more than mere telephones, they are also game consoles, computers, cameras.  But the limits of their uses are only just being explored.  Imaginative communities, entrepreneurs, and individuals have put mobile and wireless technologies to use as vital agents of public health, as tools for encouraging civic engagement, as hubs for social and cultural connectivity and networking, as critical infrastructure of emergency planning and preparedness, as broadcasting devices, as catalysts of commerce and banking, as educational and instructional aids, and even as fashion accessories.

Their implications for the global economy can not yet be fully imagined.  Beyond the core industries, engineers, product developers and scientists who have been designing the algorithms, software, hardware and infrastructure for mobile telephony, there are now also countless individuals, communities, and companies collaborating, innovating, and instigating new applications, services, and content.

Like so much else in the increasingly networked learning and innovation environments we now inhabit,  the mobile phone has become a platform for enormously imaginative collaboration by citizens at their laptops in their living rooms, as well as by coders in their labs.

We at the newly formed Mobile Future Coalition are excited by these developments, and inspired by the implications of mobile technology for our nation, our communities, and our families.  We believe that innovation in mobile and wireless technology will only accelerate, and in so doing serve the greater good.  We believe that we are still in the very early days of our era of mobile technology.  And to ensure its continued evolution and innovation as a force for economic, cultural, scientific and community advancement, all stakeholders who care about mobile technologies – industry, communities, governments, the academy, the media, and individual innovators – will benefit by learning from each other, by listening to each other, and by collaborating with each other.

That is what Mobile Future is about.  Our aim is to be an open, accessible and value-added educational platform for bringing all those who care about the mobile technologies together in common cause to discuss and learn about key issues that will impact the continued metamorphosis of the mobile and wireless technologies as a key engine for economic and social growth and innovation in the United States and around the world.  We especially hope to serve as a useful and sturdy bridge between those who innovate and those who regulate to ensure the greatest possible transparency, openness and mutual education.

Join us. Collaborate with us. Though we are 160 years on from Antonio Meucci’s remarkable innovation, in the grander scheme of things, we have only just begun. Let us know what you are thinking.