No, I’m not saying personal communications services are here yet. Obviously they’re not. But, by any reasonable standard, Ubiquity-anytime, anywhere communications-is already here, delivered by one network or another or a network of networks to those who are willing to pay the toll.
The arrival of PCS on the threshold of this industry is just one of the final steps in the journey of wireless Ubiquity from car-bound status symbol to high-cost business tool to-finally-the mass market.
Indeed, Ubiquity has arrived as an unwelcomed challenger in that last bastion of telephonic monopoly-the local loop. At last, after traveling more than a decade, wireless may soon displace wireline in providing telephony for Everyman.
As we’re dazzled by the strides Ubiquity has taken on its journey, let’s not be blinded to the steps taken by its companion-Utility.
Utility is that set of applications brought about by advances in digital technology and software that introduce intelligence into terminals, pagers and handsets-devices that were originally a passive part of the communications network.
Put another way, Utility can be defined as the applications made possible by the convergence of computing and telecommunications-applications for transportation, field sales and service, health care and public safety as well as for personal use.
An important milestone for Utility is next week’s Wireless Apps conference hosted by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. It’s encouraging to see this prominent trade association taking an interest.
Carriers themselves are investing in Utility even as they relentlessly consolidate and commoditize their services.
While the journey of wireless Ubiquity has produced great excitement and even greater wealth, wireless Utility is going to deliver a strategic impact that can only be guessed at today.
It’s been noted before that the early electrical networks in this country were built as dedicated infrastructure to support the light bulb. The vast array of consumer appliances and business tools that we take for granted were not and could not be envisioned in the beginning.
And Alexander Graham Bell believed the primary application for his telephone invention would be the transmission of concert music. He didn’t foresee the impact wireline voice and data networks would have on enterprise and society.
Should we expect anything less from wireless?
The mutually supportive technology concepts of Ubiquity and Utility will be received by a market that is already being transformed by new business concepts such as Just-In-Time Manufacturing, Mass Customization and Electronic Commerce that are setting a faster, more intimate tempo in both enterprise and everyday life-whether we like it or not.
Their arrival, arm-in-arm, may even set off a new, paradigm-shifting wave of re-engineering and restructuring on a global scale.
So let’s keep an eye on both Ubiquity and Utility. They’re fellow travelers on the information highway.
