NEW YORK—The Yankee Group once again pulled together a quality list of speakers for its Wireless Leadership Summit, including executives from Sprint Nextel Corp., Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and Verizon Wireless, as well as representatives from a handful infrastructure vendors and wireless content providers.
Notable speakers included Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Officer Gary Forsee, Cingular Chief Technology Officer Kristin Rinne, MediaFLO USA Inc. President Gina Lombardi and Verizon Wireless President and CEO Denny Strigl, who has made a habit of announcing consumer-friendly initiatives at Yankee Group events that send ripples through the wireless industry. (See separate story on page 1.)
Forsee led off the event with the opening keynote that was short on any new information, but included the company’s continued call for financial analysts to take a different view of how efficient carriers are actually using their networks instead of relying on the standard average revenue per user and customer churn metrics.
Forsee also failed to provide any insight into the company’s 2.5 GHz spectrum plans, which were initially expected to be announced before the end of the second quarter, but have since been pushed out to sometime this summer.
Cingular science
Cingular’s Rinne, who opened up the second day, provided slightly more insight into the industry’s largest carrier through way of a chemistry-based presentation that left more than a few attendees wishing they’d kept a few of their high-school text books.
Through the atom-based haze, Rinne said the carrier was nearing the launch of mobile video services on its high-speed UMTS/HSDPA network that would allow customers to stream video content between handsets. The news was a follow up to what the carrier had initially announced at the CTIA 2006 trade show earlier this year.
Rinne also said the carrier was not completely opposed to its customers running Voice over Internet Protocol services over its UMTS/HSDPA wireless data network. However, the carrier would like to work out the billing and operational kinks before fully supporting such activities. Rinne responded to a question from Yankee Group Executive Vice President of Wireless Mobile Strategies Keith Mallinson, who said he recently made an international phone call using Skype’s VoIP service from his personal computer over Cingular’s UMTS/HSDPA network.
Rinne noted that the carrier doesn’t have a problem with customers using such technology on its network, but that it would be more comfortable with the technology if it could guarantee quality and institute a way to bill for such services—thereby allowing Cingular to recoup the costs of supporting such services.
Carriers have been reluctant to approve unauthorized VoIP services on their wireless data networks as such applications are seen as bandwidth intensive as well as a possible lower-cost competitor to their traditional circuit-switched voice services.
Separately, Rinne mentioned that the carrier was looking to begin deploying IMS technology on its network by the end of the year with plans for broader deployment by the end of the decade. The IMS work would be accomplished in conjunction with Cingular’s parent companies AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp., which will unite following AT&T’s pending acquisition of BellSouth.
TV channels
MediaFLO’s Lombardi provided an update on the Qualcomm Inc. subsidiary’s plans to launch a mobile television service using its 700 MHz spectrum holdings. Lombardi noted that the service would initially include a selection of streaming content from 24 television channels—which were not named—and that carriers would be able to pick and choose which of the channels they would offer to their customers. While the streaming content would not allow for any form of personalization, Lombardi said she expected carriers would use the high-speed data capabilities of their traditional cellular networks to integrate customizable options for their customers.
Lombardi added that the company would make some announcements regarding content deals in about three months and that Verizon Wireless was still on tap to be its initial launch partner.
On the content side, MTV Networks’ Vice President of Wireless Strategy and Operations Greg Clayman said the media giant was is in no hurry to join the mobile virtual network operator ranks in the near term, and instead it is looking to continue supplying access to its vast array of content to as many network operators as possible.
Clayman noted that the television network, which is part of Viacom’s stable of offerings that include VH1, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, is focused on getting as much of its content as possible to its current carrier partners as well as expanding its off-deck content options. The company currently supplies wireless content to most of the major operators in the United States as well as a number MVNOs, including Amp’d Mobile Inc. and Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C.
Clayman wouldn’t completely rule out an eventual MVNO play however, but said MTV is still several years away from that possibility.
