hyper-connected mobile world 5 wireless connections would exist for every man, woman and child in the US.
Verizon chief envisions hyper-connected mobile world
Kevin Fitchard April 1st, 2009
Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg today did a little crystal ball gazing, using his keynote address at CTIA Wireless to describe a mobile future in which wireless connectivity became so pervasive that as many as 5 wireless connections would exist for every man, woman and child in the US.
Wireless is about to enter a new era, where wireless will connect everything: not just people-to-people, but also people-to-machine and machine-to-machine,” Seidenberg said. “In this model, there is literally no limit on the number of connections that can be part of the mobile grid: cars, appliances, buildings, roads, sensors, medical monitors, someday even inventories on supermarket shelves–all of these have the potential to become inherently intelligent, perpetually connected nodes on the mobile web.”
It’s already starting to happen in the US as it’s happened in other countries, Seidenberg said. Consumers are not just buying additional connected devices such as PDAs and laptops, but machine-to-machine links are starting to emerge, embedding wireless into metering networks, automobiles, even medical equipment. Those connections are driving US wireless penetration to 100%.
“But even that’s too limiting a view of the future,” Seidenberg said. “If we think in terms of the complex web of wireless connectivity that next-generation technology will bring about, then the opportunity to explode past the 100% ceiling to 300%, 400%, or 500% is not only possible, it’s probable.”
Long-term evolution (LTE) will be large part of that strategy, Seidenberg said, allowing Verizon to deliver 10 times the capacity of Verizon’s EV-DO 3G networks today. But Seidenberg added that its open development program will also play a significant role. By certifying third-party devices, apps and technology that don’t fall into the category of phones, Verizon is helping to create huge grid of interconnectivity In that individual nodes could be transmitting as a little as a meter reading once a month, or they could be transmitting a patient’s entire medical history and up-to-second vital sign readings over a hospital network.
Speaking at a Q&A session after the keynote, Seidenberg said it would be a mistake to think of this new connectivity merely as an ever multiplying network of devices—there are only so many phones, laptops and PDAs a single customer needs. One must think of the network as series of relationships, joining devices to one another, to sensors, to the wireless network and the Internet at large. “You might have something in your pocketbook that talks to your thermostat,” Seidenberg said. You wouldn’t call that link a connection in the traditional sense, Seidenberg said, but it is relationship enabled by wireless nonetheless.
At the session, Seidenberg and Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam also took the opportunity to dispel some false notions about its open developer program, namely that it would only certify sensors to M2M devices, not phones or data devices that would directly compete with VZW’s business and consumer voice and data services. McAdam said Verizon has not only already certified a third-party phone, but will certify all sorts of phones, smartphones, PDAs, computers and e-book readers in the future. It’s true that majority of the 36 devices certified so far are M2M devices, but that’s where most of the interest in the open developer program has lay, he said.
“We wanted to be smart enough to go where the market was driving us,” McAdam said. “Right now the market has a lot of pent-up demand for machine-to-machine, but you will see phones and PDAs.” |
