As was evidenced last week at CTIA Wireless 2009, the world is on the move—not just communications, but also with computing power.
Whether it was Dr. Eric J. Topol, the Chief Academic Officer of Scripps Health, making clear that health care can be delivered with greater quality and efficiency with tools available today; or Mike Lazaridis, CEO of Research In Motion, announcing an “app store” for Blackberry users. It was clear that people love their wireless connections and are using them in more ways, more places, and more often both for work and for pleasure.
And both providers and consumers are responding. U.S. consumers have roared into the mobile communications space, with 273 million subscribers as of last summer, an 84 percent penetration rate. They have been encouraged by a growing availability of connection to a better and faster service.
Deploying new antennas as fast as local regulators will allow, providers are also bringing faster speeds, as demonstrated by the relentless move to better and better technologies, such as LTE or WIMAX. AT&T alone will invest at least $17 billion in 2009 in network infrastructure and establish 2,100 cell sites, entering 20 new markets.
So as coverage spreads, as speeds dramatically increase, and as penetration nears 100 percent, more people will gain mobility with their broadband. By all indications demand and use of mobile technology will outstrip demand for broadband that requires being tethered to a desk.
With the promise of greater speed and greater availability, that hand-wringing over whether every nook and cranny of the U.S. has “pipes in the ground” can end. In many places fixed broadband may never take hold for a variety of reasons, not least of which is consumers’ preference for mobility.
So as the government explores how to spend a few billion dollars on a national broadband policy, all policymakers, from Congress to the FCC to the states where money will flow, must make sure that the taxpayers’ money they’re spending does not interfere with the private sector’s investments and plans—plans that dwarf the government’s broadband budget.