Thinking big

Sometimes when you’re in the thick of things in this industry, it’s difficult to remember the big picture, so today I want to go to the top of the summit and look down.
The technologies under construction today, whether it’s WIMAX, LTE, UMB or something else, have the potential to change our lives, our society, our globe. That’s a powerful statement. (I know it sounds a bit Pollyannaish and certainly hokey; I tried to make it sound less so.) But communications have always been at the core of huge societal shifts: The invention of the Guttenberg press taught a generation how to read, empowering average citizens and ultimately allowing them to question the authorities of the time; and viewing the Vietnam War on TV brought the situation closer to home, ultimately changing Americans’ attitude toward that war.
The wireless industry, connected by swaths of unseen, untouchable spectrum, is doing the same for today’s populace. Initially, it connected people by voice; now it’s starting to connect people through content.
Texas Instruments has a view of the 2012 Olympics in London that allows people to communicate in their native tongue and have that automatically translated to someone else in their own native tongue. Alcatel Lucent’s Mary Chan talks about moving from a “Can you hear me now?” society to a “Can you see me now?” society in this week’s issue of RCR Wireless News. These inventions-whether it’s a MySpace or YouTube, or a gaming application yet to be developed-are connecting people in entirely new ways. And connections create community.
As former president Bill Clinton told CTIA Wireless 2007 attendees earlier this year, communities care for each other. Think about it: Wireless does that. Clinton said for every percentage increase in cellphone penetration, a nation’s gross domestic product also rises.
So the people building the industry-you-can and should continue to debate the best technologies, the best business models, the appropriate government guidance. But the big picture is connecting people-those in the Big Apple and those in sub-Sahara Africa, the lonely college student and the overworked businessperson-and a connected society can lead to better lives for all of us. Imagine the possibilities.