CANNES, France-At odds with some in the wireless industry, the keynote speaker at the GSM World Congress 2000 is not a proponent of convergence. In fact, Keith McCurdy, chief executive officer of Experts-Exchange.com, said convergence is not happening and wireless professionals should promote moving content across multiple devices.
“With the proliferation of data and content, the convergence tendency weakens,” said McCurdy, who until recently was the vice president of online for Electronic Arts, an entertainment software publisher.
McCurdy noted the battle between content and platforms and said he doesn’t support porting video games to cell phones. Rather, wireless terminals should act as remote communicators, connecting game players to other players, for example.
McCurdy spoke at the 14th annual Global System for Mobile communications technology Congress, the largest GSM event ever, with about an estimated 9,000 delegates and 275 exhibitors.
George Schmitt, president and CEO of Omnipoint Communications Inc., discussed the state of the industry and provided his GSM wish list: handsets that cost less than $50, network infrastructure without patches, universal hands-free connection, voice-to-text and text-to-voice capability, and General Packet Radio Service terminals.
He said his hope for universal hands-free connection is based on several factors, including concerns with the possible connection between wireless phones and health effects.
To emphasize the need for GPRS handsets, Schmitt distributed pins with the modified acronym “God Send GPRS Mobiles.” Several manufacturers have said at the show they will have GPRS terminals commercially available by year-end.
He also noted it was time for vendors to make commitments to GSM and cited third-generation regulation as a threat to the technology.
“We need to keep family disputes private,” Schmitt said, referring to association members offering a united front.
The GSM Association, with 409 members and associate members, used the event to tout initiatives introduced or advanced during the last year.
The GSM Global Roaming Forum, first announced last October at Telecom ’99, is developing interest and roaming plans in cooperation with the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium. The first official meeting of the forum is scheduled to take place in March.
“Interstandard roaming has to be a primary focus for the year 2000,” said Michael Stocks, association chairman, “and that is why we formed the forum and encouraged other standards to join us and extend the availability of roaming for internationally mobile customers.”
However, James Nealy, president of Cook Inlet VoiceStream PCS and deputy chairman of the GSM Association, said the group is not aggressively pursuing involvement from Code Division Multiple Access carriers.
“We’ve spent more time with the UWCC than the CDG (CDMA Development Group,)” said Nealy.
The association also plans to extend membership to prospective GSM operators, such as those companies bidding for 3G licenses. Previously, membership was open only to companies with licenses and spectrum allocations.
In addition, the GSM Certification Forum, a voluntary organization formed to address potential problems with using handsets across multiple networks, was launched. The forum is funded and co-owned by the association and GSM manufacturers.
