I’m slowly returning to the real world after attending the Femtocells World Summit in London last week.   Thought I better get down some impressions before I lose the aura of the conference entirely.   It was an exciting conference packed with the who’s who in the femto industry – and the message was clear:   Femto has arrived globally.   Operators were discussing not only successful trials, but successful commercial deployments. AT&T used the platform to announce the completion of nationwide deployment of their 3G MicroCell service.   Vodafone showed an amusing customer video of how femto changed the life of an IT consultant living in a basement flat in Edinburgh. SoftBank discussed the business case for giving 400,000 free femto devices to the 2% of its customer base that receives no 3G coverage at home – the same model they used when rolling out DSL. And Cellcom EVP Rob Riordan pushed the envelope by focusing on the new unified communications business services that can be offered from a femto architecture, including Mobile PBX. Informa announced that commercial deployments have doubled just since November. The growth may not match the hockey stick charts that seem to be part of every new technology launch hype, but the growth is clear and strong. It’s also clear that business models are still being worked out, and some of the conference buzz was around data caps and the concern that the operational advantages of using femto for 3G offload might be mitigated by lawful intercept regulations in the US and other countries that requires traffic in licensed spectrum to be managed by the operator.   The difference is that, instead of theory, these are now real world issues that are being monitored and addressed in live networks.   As AT&T’s Executive Director for Radio Access Network Gordon Mansfield noted, the traffic offload issue is currently being tackled by standards bodies.   And some of the femto standards work is moving faster than ever, as we’ve watched Iuh move from a standard in early 2009 to a demonstration at last year’s show, to an announced deployment by Mosaic Telecom this year. Speaking of Gordon, the highlight of the conference was the Femtocells Industry Awards dinner, where the AT&T 3G MicroCell service won the award for Best Commercial Launch, and Gordon Mansfield was singled out for the prestigious Individual Contribution to the Fem to Forum Award as the as the individual who has made the single biggest difference to the progress of the Forum.   It was great to see Gordon recognized for his tireless work both inside AT&T and more broadly in the femto industry.   The judges also noted that “AT&T’s 3G MicroCell deployment with Cisco caught the judges’ eyes for two crucial reasons. First and foremost, it emphasised the importance of the customer at the heart of the femtocell experience, positioning technology very much as an enabler, rather than an end in itself. Secondly, the deployment is on a national scale, which given the US market’s size adds an additional layer of complexity.” Congratulations Gordon.   In the words of Oscar Wilde “Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.” ... View more

When I hopped in a cab Tuesday morning at CTIA Wireless, I asked the driver (as I usually do) how business was going.  She said “Everyone’s in a good mood.  And that hasn’t been true for a couple years.”  I took that as a truly positive economic indicator – one that was reinforced at the show.  I can’t say that audience levels were back at pre-depression highs, but the business was brisk and the atmosphere was definitely positive. The keynotes were delivered by a stellar lineup of CEOs, along with our own CTO Padmasree Warrior.  Every presentation highlighted the tremendous growth projected for the Mobile Internet, and most referenced the Cisco VNI to underscore the trend.  Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, was a standout.  He said we’re in the midst of a revolution that will change society, and clearly articulated what is needed to ensure that carriers in the US and worldwide can embrace and manage the growth: 1) Increased spectrum, citing the new US National Broadband Plan as a positive step 2) Increased network efficiency as we move from HSPA+ to LTE 3) Taking advantage of technologies such as WiFi & femto for seamless connectivity to the best available network 4) Improved device and application efficiencies. Of course there were exciting product and service announcements as well.  The standouts were Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G – a 4G smartphone that takes advantage of Sprint’s WiMAX network (I like the fact that is has two cameras for social networking), the Samsung Galaxy S (my winner for best quote of the show: “In the smart phone race, the gun has been fired, and the Galaxy S is already at the finish line.” JK Shin, President Samsung), and AT&T’s announcement of the national rollout for their 3G MicroCell service. Both Telefonica Chairman Iñaki Urdangarín and Trilogy Board Chairman John Stanton reminded us that wireless networks can not only improve lives through health and education services, but actually help save lives and rebuild countries.  Mr. Urdangarín talked about several social programs that Telefonica supports, including Educared and Proniño.  Mr. Stanton told the compelling story of how the Voila network was used to help the rescue effort immediately following the earthquake in Haiti, and how it continues to be used to help rebuild the country.  Did you text funds to the Red Cross for Haiti?  He called this impulse philanthropy – a powerful fundraising tool that raised over $30 million for the relief effort. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Padma Warriors keynote.  Padma wove this year’s show theme – the Mobile Life – into an exciting demo that showed what’s possible today as consumers move from the shopping mall to the train to home with true mobility.  She gave us another sneak peek at Consumer Home TelePresence (first introduced at CES), as a WebEx meeting was moved from the Mobile phone, to a home phone, to a high definition Cisco TelePresence screen. This was the 25th Anniversary of the CTIA Wireless show.  I give the show an E for Energy, Enthusiasm, and Excitement.  I left Vegas in a good mood. ... View more

An article by Maisie Ramsay in this week's Wireless Week caught my eye: ABI: Carriers Warming Up to Wi-Fi.   According to ABI Analyst Michael Morgan: “The picture may be unique to each carrier, but in the end, Wi-Fi can offer most operators two key benefits: extended reach and/or network load reduction”. We're clearly seeing more and more signs of this trend, and a straight line can be drawn directly to the success of the iPhone.   As Nielson Mobile pointed out recently, 88% of iPhone users access the Internet (4 times the average for the typical subscriber), and WiFi is used by 68% of iPhone users.  In fact mobile usage patterns indicate a clear user preference for WiFi when it's available - especially when the transition to the WiFi network is seamless.  And, as Mr. Morgan points out, with increased data demands, Operators are increasingly seeing WiFi as a way to free up network capacity rather than as a threat to existing services.  Operators such as CableVision are using WiFi bundles to attract new subscribers and expand services to existing subscribers through their Optimum WiFi community zones. This shift seems to be occurring relatively rapidly.  Are you seeing the same trends?  I'd love to hear examples of how Operators are integrating WiFi in your part of the globe.  And here's an interesting question posed in a discussion with an analyst this week - with WiFi and Femto offload, are we simply moving the congestion problem from one part of the network to another? Interested in your thoughts. ... View more

A few weeks ago, from my laptop, I watched Octavia Nasr on CNN.com Live reporting about Iranian citizen journalism, a story she covered from Atlanta via her BlackBerry. I continued to witness the developing story by following Tweeter Change_for_Iran, and citizen photojournalist Tehranreporter at the news community Demotix.com. If there was ever a doubt that mobile multimedia is the 21 st century equivalent of Gutenberg's printing press, that doubt has been banished by the events unfolding in Iran. Just as the assassination of John F. Kennedy marked the end of the era of radio news and the beginning of TV news, one could say that the passing of TV news anchor Walter Cronkite and the events surrounding the Iranian election mark the beginning of the next era in news – mobile multimedia. As technology opens up multiple avenues of how news is captured and disseminated, distinctions blur between content and its conduits. And this breakdown in boundaries presents a challenge to service providers.   In the past, operators could differentiate based on unique engineering and experience with specific kinds of content – high quality television or reliable mobile phone calls. Now, success increasingly depends on enabling subscribers to connect freely with any content, anywhere and on any device. And make no mistake; it's going to be mobile. As the recent Cisco Visual Networking Index reported, global mobile data traffic will double every year through 2013, increasing 66 times between 2008 and 2013.   Triple- and quadruple-play service offerings are one response to the changing business landscape. And while today's multi-service offerings are a first attempt at breaking down the content silos, there's no question that tomorrow's winners will be operators who are today thinking about meeting customers' demands for ubiquitous access. When big events happened in the past, we would come together to face them gathered around our TVs.   The new international meeting place is the Internet.   What new business models can you envision as we move into the mobile multimedia news era and 4G rolls out in the coming months and years?   ... View more

Pyramid Research conducted interviews with WiMAX operator executives worldwide to uncover what works and what doesn't and identify the key factors behind successful WiMAX deployments. ... View more

Senza Fili Consulting Founder and President Monica Paolini discusses how WiMAX can improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare in developing nations. ... View more

Yankee Group Senior Research Fellow Phil Marshall discusses the importance of focusing on prioritization, partnerships, and profitability as Mobile Operators develop strategies for the 4G Mobile Internet transformation. ... View more