* Beware of industry finding its sea legs
The state of the information technology industry reminds me a little of the atmosphere at the DMV where throngs of people are constantly shuttled, like sheep, from one loooong line to another.
The IT sector needs a big shot in the arm, of course. And, as is typical, the industry masses are scurrying from one “technology queue” to the next to get it. Where once most everyone was queued up at the dot-com counter, now they’re all in line for wireless.
Like the Internet and dot-com boom, lots of good things will result from all this innovation and development. The dot-com boom wasn’t a failure. We now have widespread access to information and services, often with broadband connectivity, the ability to conduct transactions online and many other capabilities we didn’t have pre-1996. It’s just that not everyone involved got to retire at 40.
Wireless is bringing lots of new freedoms to business workers and consumers alike, and as a result, it is the next “big thing.” But, haven’t we learned that there is only room for so many competing technologies from so many players? Can’t we have several “big things” going on? The masses need standards and ease of use. Having too many competing approaches confuses people, and this turns them off to spending money.
There are a number of outstanding issues in wireless to consider them before making sweeping investments in wireless infrastructure, devices, and services:
* Wireless LAN “switches,” omnidirectional antennas on indoor base stations, pending shakeout among suppliers, and which combination of 802.11a/b/g to implement are among the key issues.
* 2.5G/3G/4G mobile WANs vis a vis Wi-Fi services have lots of sorting out ahead of them. First, spectrum issues abound. And enabling seamless roaming across a big footprint of both types of services-with consolidated back-end billing-is a tough nut to crack.
* Finally, in the last mile, more carrier equipment options in any number of frequencies abound here than you can shake a stick at, which has stalled service deployment by the big guys. The result of equipment trials, carrier commitments to this business, deployment, and everything else must be worked out.
Don’t be shy of wireless – just ask lots of questions. Next time, we’ll look a little more closely at each of these areas.
