By the time anyone reads this column, the madness and mayhem will be well under way in New Orleans and a quiet calm will have settled over the RCR editorial offices.
Though extremely tired from publishing large issues of the paper for the past few weeks, I am preparing my bag and briefcase for CTIA’s Wireless 2000 with a little more excitement and anticipation than normal, and it is not because of the parade schedule tucked in my pocket. The flood of press releases, postcards, gadgets and trinkets that arrived pre-CTIA was not necessarily any more plentiful this year than in years past (there was an unfortunate absence of chocolate), but it was littered with new companies, new names, new ideas.
It is all about the Internet.
The pre-show hype worked on me.
Just what will be seen and heard at this show? Although we were previewed on many announcements, as these pages show, there are dozens yet to be revealed. That’s a good thing … the news keeps newspapers in business.
It is easy to envision the future that the union of wireless communications and abundant data will create. After all, it is the stuff of science-fiction movies and comics from the past 50 or 60 years, come to life.
This week we will get to see it and hear it and touch it. Both the real and ready products as well as the concepts and prototypes.
We are, indeed, standing on the edge of something very big.
It is exciting to think of all the opportunities.
Maybe it’s something about the deadline-oriented nature of my work that makes me immediately think of the challenges that will go along with those opportunities. Or maybe it is just the old woman in me.
The “follow-me Internet” that Tom Wheeler speaks of is laden with possibilities for businesses and consumers alike.
Still, there are issues … and big ones … to be addressed.
Data on the device brings a whole new dimension to the question of wireless safety. How will those problems be addressed?
What about privacy, taxes, regulating the Internet, protecting our children and countless other issues?
The landscape is crawling with dot-com upstarts ready to make fortunes. Who will survive? Will the Internet remain a mecca of opportunity for countless entrepreneurs, or will they be swept away after Mardi Gras is just a memory?
Time will tell. In the meantime, let the celebration begin! It is a good time to be part of wireless.
RCR Editor Tracy Ford is on leave until early April taking care of her new baby son, Jack Anderson Ford, born on Feb. 10. Congratulations Tracy from all of us!
