@CTIA: Hesse, Morrow detail 4G revolution

LAS VEGAS—Keynote speakers and partners Dan Hesse and Bill Morrow touted the revolution that is coming with 4G technology, while at the same time urging industry to work together to bring about the sea change in data usage that will come from the new technology.
Hesse, CEO of Sprint Nextel Corp., channeled Star Trek’s Scotty in talking about 3G networks: “She’s going as fast as she can.” However, 4G rollouts will change the way people consume wireless services, including billing. Hesse said pricing tiers will be measured in gigabytes, not minutes going forward. In particular, 4G will enable wireless video distribution, which the cable operators realized, and led them to partnerships with Sprint in WiMAX provider Clearwire Corp. Hesse touted that YouTube can recognize if a consumer is using a 4G connection today and send high-definition video if that is the case. He also wireless technology will change healthcare services. Hesse said healthcare professionals are excited about future wireless technologies. “They get this in a heartbeat.”
Both Hesse and Morrow, chairman of Clearwire, sounded like neither of them were going to continue to fight technology wars between WIMAX, which the Clearwire network uses, and LTE, which AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless plan to roll out. Hesse said going forward, Sprint/Clearwire can switch to another technology but to get the competitive edge, the carriers had to choose WiMAX since it is commercially available today. “We can always add other technologies later.”
Morrow said Clearwire considers itself technology agnostic, and echoed Hesse’s thoughts. “We can sunset one technology if we need to in the future. “ Morrow said carriers should use the new technology rollouts to enable one combined standard, noting that chip maker Beceem has a chip that incorporates TDD-LTE, FDD-LTE and WiMAX. Using that, customers could have worldwide roaming and simplify things for customers and consumer electronics companies.
Clearwire mobile customers are consuming around 7 GB of data per month, Morrow said. For comparison, wireless carriers start to lose money when people consume more than 3-and-a-half to 4 GB of data a month on a 3G network. “We can double that kind of usage (7GB) and still make a profit.”
Further, 4G services will revolutionize plans, where there will be main connections, like for broadband access via a laptop, and “sometime” connections like digital cameras that upload photos automatically or a car connection that does diagnostics, Morrow said. “Innovation begins with one idea,” but that innovation leads to numerous other ideas.
Morrow also hinted that the carrier make take on more investors, saying several companies are knocking on Clearwire’s doors.