Could we, dare we get optimistic?
There are signs. The Dow topped 10,000. People are beginning to believe the economy is rebounding.
Wireless carriers continue to dodge one bullet after another. While Washington, D.C., is taking up the distracted-driving cause, it doesn’t have the teeth to hurt industry any more. People will talk on their cell phones while driving. Some use Bluetooth and other handsfree devices, others take risks. Industry is off the hook for the most part. Lawsuits alleging brain cancer caused from cell-phone use are almost forgotten. Local number portability hasn’t gone as smoothly as hoped, but carriers are rising to the challenge of bringing better service to the nation’s 150 million wireless users.
We heard good third-quarter results, for the most part. (Or at least less-frightening ones.)
The Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said the mobile market continues to expand, and the association expects demand for mobile phones to rise another 5.8 percent in 2004, up to 479.4 million units.
People are buying camera phones. Texting is cool. Short codes were adopted relatively painlessly, at least from the consumers’ vantage point.
And while camera phones are all the rage this holiday season, streaming-video phones offer a compelling next step that consumers and businesses likely will adopt when the time is right. Advanced networks are rolling out. Speeds are increasing. Devices are on the shelves. Pricing is reasonable.
Can industry get excited here? All I want for Christmas (other than eight hours alone to watch every bonus feature of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” DVD ) is a little wireless optimism. The industry deserves it. I’m not alone. I got an e-mail from a reader whose write-in vote for RCR Wireless News’ Person of the Year was the still-employed wireless worker who is now having to do more work with fewer resources. (Good point.)
The telecom industry is battered. It dares not get too ahead of itself. But it is the season for miracles. No one in wireless expects another year like 2000. The great race to deploy digital technology is likely over. But reasonable growth, reasonable buildout, and reasonable uptake of new services hold greater appeal than ever before.
