Connectivity Expo or Connect (X) is a wireless conference soon coming to my hometown, Atlanta! This should be a powerful wireless industry event. It brings together top-level speakers from various companies, the FCC and more. It’s also a great place to network with a wide variety of executives and industry power houses. And today, as wireless faces it’s biggest challenges yet, it’s a great place to discuss and debate AI and other areas the industry is rapidly moving toward.
The conference is being held from May 14 to 16 at the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta with the theme “Connectivity Everywhere.” I’m going to try and spend some time meeting with senior executives at companies, large and small. How could I not? They came to my quaint southern city.
Then again, Atlanta is now a booming metropolis. The population has exploded from 1.5 million to roughly 6 million since I moved here in the mid 1980s. The same time Ted Turner was a yacht riding playboy just starting CNN.
Wireless, private wireless, 5G, 6G, AI and more
Featured speakers at Connect X Expo include senior executives from companies like T-Mobile, Articul, NEXTLINK, SBA, American Tower, AT&T, FCC, Dish, Diamond Communications, Qualcomm, Accenture, US Cellular, Crown Castle, WIA or Wireless Infrastructure Association, Vertical Bridge and AWS.
There are what look to be informative sessions which focus on wireless, private wireless, 5G and 6G, AI and frankly quite a bit that the wireless industry needs to be focused on.
The wireless industry is roughly 50 years old. It has grown and changed, time after time over decades. It started with installed car phones, then transportable bag phones, then portable handhelds of different sizes, then in the 1990s it moved from analog to digital.
Different companies led this industry at different times. For example, Motorola went from the front of the list of competitors to the back of the same list at the time when we moved from analog to digital in the 1990s.
Then companies like Blackberry and Nokia lead the way for the next decade until the iPhone and Android were launched. That suddenly sent these previous leaders to the back of the pack alongside Motorola.
All that being said, today we find ourselves at the beginning of what may be the biggest shift the wireless industry has ever seen.
This next growth wave will not just be about faster and more immediacy thanks to 5G, but also about AI, IoT and other technologies that will transform the every sector of the wireless industry, as well as the entire business world, over the next decade.
5G and AI will transform the B2B and B2C wireless market
B2B and B2C will be transformed, very quickly. In fact, this change wave has already begun. Some companies are leading this change wave. Others are still waiting.
Some companies will reshape the wireless industry, change expectations and what users want. These are the ones who will lead the way and carve out new paths for growth. Other companies will wait for this to be accomplished, then they will jump in on the secondary wave and join in on the competitive frenzy.
Still, other companies are slower moving may miss this next wave. They will suffer. They may jump in late and try to power their way through all the noise and chaos left behind by the early adopters.
Is your company ready for the new wireless world we are moving to?
So, which kind of company do you represent and work for? Are you a leader, a follower or one who will struggle to be seen and heard?
Like in every other rapidly growing industry we have witnesses from the internet to telephone to pay TV to wireless, things change quickly. It was only 25 years ago that telephone and cable TV were at the top of their game.
Now, as users have mobile phones, they are cancelling their landlines. Now, as users move to streaming, cable TV is finding it hard to survive. Traditional landline telephone and cable TV are shrinking, rapidly.
The next step in wireless industry evolution with AI and more
The wireless marketplace changes quickly. Your company may lead the industry today, but virtually overnight you can go from winner to loser.
As I have already explained, this has happened to many past industry leaders. Don’t think it won’t happen again. That is what I am hoping much of this conference will include. The next step in wireless evolution. This is a great time and place for tough conversations to be had and strategies to be developed. Execs should use these events to put their minds together and develop real solutions for tomorrow.
Your strategy should keep your company with the moving growth wave
Wireless has always been and will always be one of the real growth sectors we have ever seen in our lifetimes.
That being said, it is important to understand how the change wave keeps moving and keeps reshaping the industry. Today’s winning companies and sectors may not be tomorrow’s. Tomorrow, there will be new companies and sectors who take the lead, for a while. Then it moves on again.
Wireless is always moving forward. Always transforming. Always changing. The next 50 years will be even more exciting and challenging. Your strategy should keep you with the moving growth wave. Otherwise, you may get left behind. What we are moving toward today has to do with the regular transformation of the industry, but also includes new technology like AI, IoT and more.
Even though our plate is full today, we must prepare for everything that is coming at us like a freight train.
Enjoy Connect X Expo, and welcome to Atlanta.