If life is a journey, 2005 has been a long, strange trip for the wireless industry.
Looking back at the events of this year only underscores how quickly this industry changes. We reported that Verizon Wireless launched Vcast service in January and committed to MediaFlo’s TV service in December.
This industry never sleeps. The RCR Wireless News edit staff completed the process of choosing the top 20 stories for the year last Tuesday-and then Sprint Nextel Corp. announced it reached an agreement to buy Nextel Partners Inc. Does that story bump Sprint Nextel’s previously announced purchase of Alamosa Holdings Inc.? Nextel Partners is a bigger bite than Alamosa, but Alamosa is representative of all Sprint Nextel CDMA affiliates, while Nextel Partners is the only iDEN affiliate. (In the end, the Sprint Nextel-Nextel Partners story bumped a story on Amp’d Mobile Inc.)
Likewise, looking through a year’s worth of issues, July is supposed to be a slow month. It’s the dog days of summer. People are on vacation. Ha! No one told wireless players. Sprint Corp. started offering CDMA2000 1x EV-DO service in 25 markets that month; Nextel Partners sued Nextel Communications Inc.; Broadcom Corp. sued Qualcomm Inc.; and the Federal Communications Commission considered four proposals for the 3G band.
2005 was the year people began talking in earnest about municipal Wi-Fi and WiMAX in the United States. Public safety gained renewed interest (again) following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. (Will there ever come a day when we don’t have to do a story on problems with public-safety interoperability?)
But the year also was flooded with media, something that has made RCR Graphics Editor Stacey Horne quite thankful, by the way. We get to run pictures of content on phones, not just phones. Wireless is no longer a black-box industry, and that fact is proven daily. (About a half-hour ago, Verizon Wireless announced Sonic the Hedgehog is coming to a handset near you. Can’t wait.)
What’s ahead for 2006? Another strange journey, I suspect. How will Skype Technologies S.A., Vonage Holdings Inc., eBay Inc. and Google Inc. play in wireless? You can bet these companies will play because wireless is all that, but I don’t think even they have figured out where and how they’ll play. Will the June “3G” auction take place? And if so, will it be a watershed event or just a ripple in the 3G ocean as existing carriers fortify their spectrum holding? Or will it bring more questions than answers-like when Craig McCaw’s company bought a bunch of 2.5 GHz spectrum?
Who knows? But I promise you a great front-row seat next year as the drama continues to unfold. Happy Holidays!
