SAN FRANCISCO — Listening to the star-studded opening keynote session at this year’s CTIA I.T. & Entertainment 2008 event shed a little more light on my dumb mind: Most of the people with a hand in starting the wireless industry or currently running the wireless industry are smart. Not the run-of-the-mill-good-at-Jeopardy smart, but people who can solve complex problems involving both numbers and words. That kind of smart.
In listening to the CEOs of Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA – though the lack of representation of the industry’s No. 1 carrier was notable – talk about a complex issue like open access, I was struck by what seemed to be their comprehension of the issues on both sides of the agenda and not just jumping to one side of the argument.
It’s obvious that these carriers are taking the issue seriously and want to tap into the innovations possible through such initiatives, but they are also cognisent of the issues that could impact network quality and ultimately the consumer experience.
Even more fascinating was seeing both Craig McCaw and John Stanton on stage for the second half of the keynote. (I heart John Stanton.)
Here are two guys who were the real catalyst for the thriving mobile industry today and to hear some of their stories of the “good ole days” of wireless makes it even more amazing to think how this industry has grown so fast in such a short period of time.
Listening to them swap war stories from the “wild west” days of cellular was priceless, and though it may have been lost on the younger members of the audience, the discussion was a coup for CTIA in celebration of the industry’s 25 years in business.
It was also classic to see Stanton pull out the mandatory “brick” phone when talking about the history of cellular, only to have McCaw one-up his younger colleague with an even older model.
Good stuff from smart guys.
Smart talk
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