Cell Phone Tower
Cell Phone Tower
In the not-too-distant future, as world economies were healing from the global recessions of 2008-2012, wireless carriers in the United States died.
Please understand, they didn’t die overnight. It took several years, in fact, as mobile cloud computing, mobile IP, satellite personal communications systems and the PCC (Public Communications Commission), formerly the FCC, made the carriers’ death a given.
AT&T, ignoring customer concerns, was the first to go, as soon as the PCC discovered they had deliberately conspired with handset manufacturers to ban VOIP on all their handsets.
Apple, which finally admitted to the collusion, was gently slapped, fined and changed its policy.
This spawned a resurgence by Google, Skype and other VOIP app and service providers, lowering international phone call charges to an average of 3 cents per minute with free text messaging and unlimited data for $10 a month.
Comcast collapsed as it continued to fight net neutrality regulation and legislation.
Despite Verizon’s attempt to mollify customers with its “$99 Talk All You Want” plan, customers switched to Wimax and mobile satellite services. T-Mobile closed its U.S. operations soon after the discovery of hacked customer accounts.
And, despite Sprint/Nextel’s valiant attempts to resurrect the company, CEO Dan Hesse retired to raise sheep–his second passion next to wireless–and the company’s network was sold to Yahoo Mobile. Smaller mobile carriers in the U.S. teamed with the remaining mobile voice and data companies to ensure coverage in smaller cities and towns.
As a result of wireless carrier abuse of the public airwaves, the PCC banned cell phone contracts and required all mobile service providers to allow any compatible phone and mobile apps on their networks.
To counter Apple’s app store, Android mobile developers, working with Google, launched a profitable Android application store. In its first sixth months, the store sold over half-a-million apps at an ASP of $29.97, twice the ASP of Apple’s iPhone store. This primarily resulted from application developers abandoning Apple due to low profitability and higher profits on the Android platform.
As events unfolded, the U.S. economy experienced a massive mobile and wireless growth spurt as new players moved into position: mobile cloud computing companies, application developers, handset manufacturers, retailers and innovative mobile service companies.
In particular, Nokia, based in Finland, opened its new Linux division to compete with the iPhone, Pandora Internet Radio announced lucrative new contracts with suppliers, making MobiChirp on Twitter hop and jump and companies like Perfecto Mobile double their customer base.
Meantime, U.S. mobile users readily adopted the European model–purchasing their own handsets, SIM’s and accessories, then choosing from dozens of mobile phone providers (MPP’s), who recommend but can’t activate any CDMA or GSM phone by law.
Due to MPP competition, mobile phone prices (including sophisticated smartphones) dropped significantly, especially after Michael Boland with the Kelsey Group, updated his search advertising forecast to $50 billion by 2015.
As events unfolded with the demise of U.S. wireless carriers, mobile broadband speeds increased to an average download speed of 100Mbps on new 4G networks. The gradual roll-out of 4G networks through IP protocols, had a major impact on mobile users in the U.S.
In a surprising turn of events for Motorola, one of the few U.S. manufacturers of mobile handsets, the company posted annualized growth rates of 75% primarily due to its new line of HelloMoto 4G models.
Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone continued lagging the overall mobile phone market due to its lack of MMS, a problem Apple faced when affiliated with AT&T Mobility and the continuing VOIP implementation snafus. Those familiar with the situation said that Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, was negotiating with Google about changing “Google Voice” to “Apple Voice” as part of the solution.
Kirsten McMullen of 4INFO in San Mateo, California, proclaimed “the age of SMB advertising,” forecasting a growth spurt that would invigorate the entire mobile industry.
Other than that, the sun rose the next morning and mobile life continued…
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September 15, 2009 – Wimax from Clearwire hits Silicon Valley
Clearwire, the leader in Wimax mobile broadband, hit the Valley today with a wireless broadband signal covering the Intel and Google campuses in Palo Alto and Mountain View.
During Clearwire’s test of its 4G-enabled service, developers and network experts at Intel and Google will test a system that boasts a download data speed of up to 10Mbps to PC’s and Wimax-enabled mobile phones. This speed exceeds AT&T Wireless’ proposed 7Mbps LTE network not yet available in the United States and challenges wireless carriers to boost data speeds and lower costs.
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