In the late 90’s I worked for the Cellular Telecommunications Internet Association (CTIA), the trade association representing North American wireless carriers. It was a fantastic experience, and the highlight of every year was the annual conference and show, arguably the most important event for the telco industry. Almost every employee attended, working very hard but also having a lot of fun.
Now that I’m working on the agency side of things, I don’t get the chance to attend very often. Clients have asked me to attend a couple of times but most years agency responsibilities don’t allow for it.
For most in the telco market CTIA is a “must attend.” But the past couple of years have seen trade shows really take a hit and some close down, due to the economy and to new media channels and sources that raise questions about the need for large, physical shows.
This year I decided to review all the media coverage coming out of the CTIA show, and gauge how much I was truly missing by not being there in person. Fierce Markets, Connected Planet and Wireless Week sent me detailed reporting on the goings on at the show. The reporting was very good and quite detailed.
Based on that quality coverage, my extremely unscientific verdict is you don’t miss any news by not attending CTIA. What you will miss are the personal relationships and potential business opportunities such a show represents. Those you can’t have delivered to you via email or social media.
Speaking of personal, here’s my take on the most interesting news to emerge last week. These news items touch on really big trends affecting the telco industry. In no particular order:
- Wireless backhaul is a big problem and a chokepoint for mobile data transmission in particular. It sounds like Verizon is investing big time in bringing Ethernet to more Verizon Wireless towers, greatly increasing throughput.
- Clearwire is the WiMAX challenger in the contest to deploy LTE (4G). Unlike Verizon and AT&T, they don’t seem worried about network congestion and are begging clients to use more mobile data.
- Android sounds like it’s on the rise big time. AdMob released a report in conjunction with the show that shows Android a strong second with a bullet in producing mobile traffic. iPhone is still number one, but its OS runs on two devices, while Android runs on 115 devices across multiple carriers — you do the math!
- Is it finally the year of the femtocell? AT&T will be offering the mini-base stations nationwide in April, improving indoor cell coverage and relieving congestion on the carrier’s cellular network. Sounds very exciting, although CNET says here AT&T should be giving, not selling, them to customers.
Have you cut down your schedule of events in the past couple of years? Based on talking to some folks who were there, attendance this year was high and CTIA’s annual show is still going strong. There are some things you can’t do long distance. So if you’ve got a business to run or clients/prospects to see, save your 2011 date. But you just want to know the latest industry buzz, you can stay at home.
