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CTIA WIRELESS 2010

- March 13, 2010 by Julie Dorbandt

The telecom team at GDC attended CTIA WIRELESS 2010 in Las Vegas from March 22-24, 2010 and this time, what happened in Vegas did not stay in Vegas. We soaked it all in from the keynotes to the showroom floor to meetings with current and prospective clients, and here’s the quick recap.

Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G Phone

The biggest buzz at the show was Sprint’s unveiling of the first-ever 4G/Wimax phone. The HTC EVO 4G is the most powerful Google Android phone available in the U.S., and people could not stop talking about it and its features:

  • Large 4.3-inch screen
  • 2 cameras, including a front-facing one for video conferencing
  • High-definition video
  • Mobile hotspot capability for connecting up to 8 other Wi-Fi devices

It comes out this summer, and we are eager to see if it pleases not only Sprint die-hards, but also those who churned off to other carriers but just need an excuse to come back. I hope Verizon is working on some retention efforts.

4G – WiMAX or LTE?

4G stands for 4th Generation, and it uses a different and better wireless spectrum than 3G (3rd Generation) service. It’s also capable of providing far better speeds to far more people at the same time, which is what we need in the data-hungry world in which we now live.

Sprint’s 4G is called WiMAX and is being deployed by Clearwire. They already offer 4G service in 27 U.S. cities, including San Antonio. At CTIA, Sprint and Clearwire announced that WiMAX would be coming to New York City, Houston, Boston, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Denver, Minneapolis and the San Francisco bay area.

AT&T and Verizon’s 4G is called LTE (Long Term Evolution), and while Verizon has some aggressive plans to roll it out over the next two years, AT&T is staying fairly quiet about it. As you have seen all over TV, AT&T and Verizon are still battling over 3G coverage. It might be time to move on.

Wireless Health

Telecom and healthcare are two sectors close to our hearts, and we continually look for ways to forge partnerships between our clients in these sectors. We met with a lot of exciting people working in this space, including Jitterbug, whose phones and services are targeted to “simplicity seekers.” At CTIA, Jitterbug launched Wellness Calls, a service in which subscribers get one five-minute outbound call per week that includes wellness tips. As the Boomers continue to age, we see this type of focus and service as a huge growth opportunity.

We also attended the Everywhere Healthcare panel hosted by MobiHealthNews to hear more about the carriers’ role and potential in mHealth, the practice of medical and public health supported by mobile devices. There were a lot of interesting solutions and theories posed by the panelists, and we developed a few ideas on how to connect these companies with some of our existing clients.