* Mobile WAN, wireless LAN reach turning points
The wireless industry has reached a crossroads. Bidders have now signed up for the spectrum auctions that will change the mobile WAN forever, while 802.11n is driving enterprises to examine new wireless LAN architectures, vendors, and network access strategies. Oh, and convergence is dissolving wireless WAN-LAN boundaries.
The changes going on in wireless represent technology-generation shifts. As such, they will fundamentally alter what we can do wirelessly and they will be long lasting.
First, the WAN.
The bidding deadline passed last week for next month’s 700MHz spectrum auction, which is likely to be the last time a significant chunk of spectrum (66MHz in total) will become publicly available for many years to come. Who ends up with spectrum and what they choose to do with it, then, matters. A lot.
A full list of bidding companies will not be published by the FCC until mid-December. Google and Frontline Wireless have confirmed that they will be bidding, and there are also unconfirmed reports that Cox Communications, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Leap Wireless will also bid.
Bidders with fundamentally different business revenue models than traditional carriers bring potential new ways of selling services, content and devices to the table. Google’s mission statement, for example, is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
In doing so, the company attracts as many eyeballs as possible to advertising, which is how it earns its keep. Some people have speculated that Google might buy Sprint, which has fallen on hard times but owns lots of wireless licenses and has a significant investment already in open-access WiMAX network infrastructure.
The deep-pocketed Google successfully lobbied the FCC for open-access provisions to be included in the 700MHz auctions, as well. Open access implies that any device and application should be able to run on a compatible network, regardless of who the operator is. This allows access to content, for example, which might not be offered by the carrier whose network is used to reach it. This is a big change from current models.
Verizon Wireless is following suit with recently announced plans to enable open access to its CDMA-based mobile network starting next year.
