In France, the country where they offer calorie-laden pain au chocolats and croissants for breakfast, keeping one’s weight under control does not seem to be a problem-probably because the locals walk the region’s hilly terrain to the bus stop or train station rather than pay exorbitant prices for a cab.
These contrasts seemed in stride with a wireless telecom industry where contrasts and opposites are pointed out with every speech, every video and every product demonstration.
Carriers post record subscriber additions; vendors see their stock prices free fall.
Is this an industry on the brink of bankruptcy, as one chip manufacturer charged, or an industry on the brink of the next big thing, the explosive wireless Internet, destined to connect every person with another regardless of location, cost or any other obstacle that may hinder its deployment? Most network manufacturers fall into the second camp.
Despite repeated calls to end the hype surrounding third-generation services, many keynote speakers at the 3GSM World Congress presented dramatic visions of what wireless technology will enable in the future when the 3G services finally take off. (And these visions are great! In one concept video, a man was in the middle of nowhere driving to a business meeting, when his car warned he was having engine trouble. The car’s navigation system guided him to the next gas station, where he was met by a concierge service, which had a rental car waiting for him so he could still make the meeting. Meanwhile, the gas station attendant will take care of the car troubles.)
Smart phones are the future, no doubt about it, manufacturers touted. Yet where are they? How come Psion and Motorola have pulled away from the smart-phone market?
WAP is the way to go. It’s the future. Just be patient, WAP supporters insisted. But few people seem tired of hearing about the success of i-mode technology in Japan.
The GSM community touted GPRS as a great transition to 3G technology. Nokia touted it has delivered 60 GPRS networks. But when pressed, the handset giant had to admit it does not have any handsets commercially available to use on those networks.
The biggest contrast at the show was Qualcomm Inc.’s mere presence. Qualcomm was trying to make the case that GSM operators could offer advanced services today by overlaying 1x CDMA technology on the network. Regardless of interoperability plans for 3G services, regardless of Qualcomm’s stance that it benefits from any CDMA platform chosen as the basis for 3G services, there remains an underlying animosity between people who believe wideband CDMA technology should serve as the backbone for UMTS service, and those who back cdma2000 technology.
