CTIA attendees try to look past economy to new networks, devices & applications – and the environment

Posted by Mike Roberts Saturday, April 4th, 2009

Add a comment

The shift to next-generation networks and devices was one of the dominant themes at CTIA 2009 held April 1-3 in Las Vegas. Attendance at the show may have been down by around 15% from the 40,000 attendees last year, according to CTIA, but with the punch-drunk economy now a given, many operators and vendors chose to look forward and focus on the opportunities and challenges of rolling out new mobile networks, devices and applications.

LTE was top of mind at CTIA, of course. In a keynote Verizon Communications chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg reaffirmed the operator’s commitment to launching LTE services next year, and added some detail on the rollout schedule. Seidenberg said Verizon Wireless will start LTE deployments later this year in two trial markets and plans to launch services in 25 to 30 markets by end-2010 to cover a population of 100 million. The operator plans “a faster rollout thereafter,” Seidenberg said.

Verizon also teamed with its networks vendors Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent to launch the Verizon LTE Innovation Center, which will be based near Boston, MA. The center aims to expand the universe of devices that will connect to LTE networks well beyond traditional phones and computers. Its three focus areas will be:

* Consumer electronics and appliances
* Machine-to-machine products in healthcare, security and utility metering
* Telematics

Seidenberg make it clear that Verizon sees LTE as a platform that will help it reignite growth in a saturating market by bringing wireless to a new array of devices and machines. Just as mobile devices expanded the addressable market from households to individuals, so LTE will expand the market further from individuals to machines, Seidenberg argues. The result is penetration rates will no longer be limited by the population and could hit 300% or even 500% as machines overtake people connected to mobile networks. In fact Verizon is not waiting for LTE to go down this path, and in March certified for use on its network a technology supporting smart electricity grids.

Not to be outdone, AT&T outlined its emerging devices strategy, which also involves bringing wireless to a new array of devices. Describing emerging devices as “maybe the single biggest opportunity in mobile,” Glenn Lurie, president of emerging devices, said AT&T has opened its doors to “everyone from small startups to huge devices vendors” in a big to push wireless into as many new device types as possible, from consumer electronics and cars to vertical markets and M2M.

The operator is also keen on offering deals across its fixed, mobile and Wi-Fi networks. At CTIA it announced a new push into netbooks, offering the devices with embedded mobile broadband for $50, as long as customers signed up for a $60 mobile broadband service and AT&T’s DSL service. But at least the netbook buyers get free access to AT&T’s 20,000 hotpots in the US. The netbook offer was launched in selected AT&T shops in Philadelphia and Atlanta.

AT&T also detailed how it’s coping with the mobile broadband traffic boom. Ralph de la Vega, president & CEO of AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets, said the operator is running fiber to more and more cell sites for use as backhaul, and can do this cost-effectively given that it’s fixed-line arm is in the midst of a major fiber buildout to support its U-Verse service. This, along with upgrades from HSDPA to HSPA+ in 2010 and LTE in 2011 will help the operator cope with the surge in traffic it is seeing from iPhone and mobile broadband PC users.

Robert Dotson, T-Mobile USA president and CEO, echoed the theme, saying that customers using its G1 device generate 50 times more traffic than basic cell phones users. Some 80% of G1 customers also use it every day to browse the Web. This helps to explain why the operator continues to expands its WCDMA/HSDPA network, which is currently available in 130 US cities and will expand to 230 by end-2009, which will double population coverage to 270 million.

Dotson also made it clear that T-Mobile USA is eyeing both HSPA+ and LTE, saying the operator is “committed to a thriving ecosystem” for both technologies. This contrasts with an earlier statement by T-Mobile’s chief technology officer that suggested the operator would skip HSPA+ and go straight to LTE. While that may make sense for some of T-Mobile’s units in Europe, it does not for T-Mobile USA, which is just deploying its WCDMA/HSPA network, and thus needs to see returns on that network before investing in LTE.

WiMAX was less prominent at CTIA 2009 compared to CTIA 2008, but Clearwire co-chairman Ben Wolff said the operator was on track to deploy Mobile WiMAX services in over 80 US markets by end-2010, taking its population coverage to 120 million. The operator says there are currently 30 notebooks with embedded WiMAX on the market today and that it expects 100 by year-end. The operator also teamed with Intel, Cisco and Google to launch the Silicon Valley WiMAX Innovation Network, a live WiMAX network which will cover 20 square miles in Silicon Valley, including the campuses of Intel, Cisco and Google. The network will be designed to help developers create new applications and services for the Clear WiMAX network.

Applications were also big at CTIA, with Research in Motion launching Blackberry App World, Nokia talking up Ovi, and major operators such as AT&T and Verizon launching or stressing major initiatives to help developers create innovative applications.

Although a lot of the focus at CTIA was on next-generation networks, devices and applications, green mobile networks and devices were a strong supporting theme, no doubt boosted by a keynote by environmental leader and former US vice president Al Gore.

With Gore detailing how the wireless industry would play a leading role in developing everything from smart electricity grids to more efficient buildings, company after company lined up to flash their environmental credentials. One example among many is Motorola, which showed off its Renew W233 handset, which it says is carbon neutral and made from recycled plastic bottles.

Among operators, Verizon noted that as of January 2009 it added an environmental dimension to the purchasing requirements it uses for all equipment it buys across all its fixed, mobile and enterprise businesses. The requirement is that all equipment must show a 20% improvement in energy efficiency compared to a baseline set by Verizon. “It’s an area where our business and the environment benefit,” said Chuck Graff, director of networks and technology at Verizon. “We cut energy use and costs, which currently run over $1 billion a year across the company, and that cuts emissions.”