PHILADELPHIA-The wireless industry is not ready for the advent of wireless data even as data is becoming increasingly important to the wireless industry and the Internet economy, said panelists at the recent spring conference of the Association of Communications Enterprises.
“How ready are they? They are not ready at all. It is a fire drill out there. We are selling our services or beta testing various applications with a half a dozen [carriers] and most of them have at least another year to implement half of the things that they are trying to presell,” said Dan Callahan, chief executive officer of CrossMedia Networks.
CrossMedia sells a service where e-mail messages can be obtained via a cell phone. The service also allows messages to be stored, standard replies to be sent or individual replies to be dictated.
While some believe wireless data speeds need to increase for data service to be valuable, Jay Sheth of Air2Web disagreed. Air2Web delivers data such as sports and banking information to wireless phones.
It depends on which wireless devices people carry in their pockets, Sheth said. “Obviously if you have a laptop with a wireless access connecting to the Internet” you want more speed.
The importance of wireless data on both the industry and the Internet economy will be an opportunity for resellers, noted Darryl Sterling, a wireless Internet consultant for MainSpring Communications.
“The Internet is going to put resellers in a position to take advantage of the fact that the Internet is going to be one of the services that is going to drive the growth of the wireless industry in the future,” Sterling said.
During the conference, the Telecommunications Resellers Association changed its name to the Association of Communications Enterprises or Ascent.
Ascent “better describes our membership and reflects the dynamic characteristics of our industry. We also want to make clear that the new name underscores our commitment to advance the business interests of an increasingly diverse membership,” said association President Ernest B. Kelly III.
Ascent members elected three new members to its board of directors: Ron Contrado, president, chairman, and founder of Homisco/Voicenet; Gordon Martin, president of carrier services for Williams Communications; and Anthony T. Sgroi, senior vice president of North American sales for Global Crossing.
