I attended the the CTIA wireless industry’s global show in New Orleans last week. It was a great opportunity to hear from all the leaders in the industry, and to walk the exhibit floor to see the great innovations in the mobile space. Wireless industry leaders from AT&T,... Read The Story...

This week, I attended a Broadband Breakfast panel session on “The Wired Home and Wireless Policy.” The discussion focus was a hot topic: the need for more spectrum and spectrum auctions.

First speaker Rick Kaplan, FCC’s Wireless Bureau Chief, spoke about the state of federal legislation for incentive auctions. The FCC wants to maintain authority to manage the auctions and is concerned that Congress will bind its hands. Rick said the FCC doesn’t envision blocking any providers from the auction, but at the same time the FCC needs the flexibility to manage the auctions. The FCC’s auction management is one issue of concern in Congress.

After Kaplan’s remarks, three other panelists spoke about these issues. Gary Shapiro, Consumer Elecronic Association’s (CEA) President and CEO, spoke about the myriad wireless devices that use an incredible amount of data, and these products assume there will be sufficient spectrum to support their use – pointing out that this is a flawed assumption. I completely agree with Shapiro’s remarks. It’s so exciting to see all the great new devices that are out in the marketplace — and soon to be available — and consumers are adopting them at a rapid pace. We need to make sure there is sufficient spectrum to support this explosion of devices and services.

Walter McCormick, USTA’s President and CEO, made the important point that over 99% of wireless services connect to a wired network and it’s critical to continue to support investment in fiber networks. Fred Campbell, President and CEO of Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI) also spoke about the rapid pace of consumer adoption of wireless technologies. Finally, Grant Seiffert, Telecommunications Industry Association’s (TIA) President, called on Congress to move forward on passing legislation for incentive auctions for spectrum.

It was an interesting panel discussion, highlighting the important need for more spectrum to support the growing demand of our wireless services and devices, as well providing some opportunity to discuss issues related to how the auctions might unfold

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas provides the opportunity to see every new and upcoming tech device in the market. I’m lucky enough to be walking the exhibit floors once again this year, checking out the cool, new devices and to see what technology has in store for consumers.

There’s always a good amount of floor space dedicated to entertainment: 3D TV (with and without glasses), video cameras smaller than our cell phones, video games that get us moving and seem so real. While these new offerings certainly are fun, I’m always more interested in the technology that improves and enhances our lives. This year, I’ve seen new and improved devices for smart homes, smart cars, smart phones, and other mobile devices. The greatest technological advancement I have seen is how all these devices are seemingly now integrated, allowing the power of each device to build on the next.

Additionally, the tablet is still a hot item at CES, with improvements on size and technology. It will be interesting to see how consumers react to the tablet market. Will they want the smaller tablet that is easier to carry and, with the phone features, appears to be more like a wireless phone? Or will they want a larger tablet with a more detailed screen that offers different benefits? It will be interesting to see where this market goes.

Well, I’m going back for another spin of the floor at CES today, to view what other technology consumer trends are coming for this year.

I just read David Honig’s Huffington Post piece on wireless broadband and it’s a breath of fresh air. He really captures the impact wireless broadband has on minority communities today. The piece, “More Wireless Broadband Is What Consumers Want, U.S. Needs to Close the Digital Divide,” counters the assumption that wireline, not wireless, broadband is the only option for minority communities to get the services they need.

Honig provides several points to support the conclusion that wireless broadband actually can help to close the digital divide. A Pew survey referenced in his blog supports the fact that African Americans and Hispanics have high rates of connectivity to the Internet via their wireless devices and are active users of mobile services. As Honig notes, wireless continues to offer the best opportunity for broadband access for minority communities.

The piece goes on to point out that consumers can use a wireless device to access the Internet for education, health, and information services. Also, today wireless broadband devices are not limited to smartphones, and small business increasingly rely on wireless service. I also agree that investment in the build out of faster wireless broadband networks is a top priority. Companies have been making the extraordinary investment to build out an increasing faster network, bringing better services to more consumers.

For more information on this subject, the blog references some great surveys and studies that have been done on this subject — so check it out here.

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Consumer Resources

Below are additional resources to more information about online privacy.

Consumer Guide to Online Privacy (PDF)
What is 4G Wireless Service? (PDF)
Consumer Online Privacy Survey
2008 Online Safety Survey
bNetS@vvy
www.onguardonline.gov
www.ikeepsafe.org/
www.getnetwise.org
www.fosi.org
www.enough.org

Other Organizations

National Caucus and Center on Black Aged:
http://www.ncba-aged.org/

National Consumers League:
http://www.nclnet.org/