CTIA: A look back

CTIA Wireless got off to an ominous start this year. The day before the event began, CTIA announced that vice president and mobile Internet pioneer Mark Desautels had died of an apparent heart attack. He was only 56 years and the loss was a tragic one. I did not know Desautels well, having only interviewed him a few times, so I’m certainly not the one to eulogize him. But I think it’s fitting to point out his role as champion of mobile data service in our industry.

In Telephony’s archives, I found a contributed piece Desautels wrote for us in 1998, “data’s IP future.” The IP nature of the mobile network may seem obvious to us today, but back in 1998 there was no 3G network to speak of. The mobile Internet consisted of barely more than a handful of text pages written in wireless markup language. Yet Desautels and his peers were calling on operators to abandon the proprietary protocols and interfaces being foisted on mobile data services and embrace the broader IP world that governed the Internet. Today the first end-to-end IP networks are being launched with 4G and the WAP-powered handset has evolved into the iPhone.

The tragedy of Desautels death probably contributed to what was a rather gloomy show this year. With an economic recession hanging over people’s heads, official conference attendance was down 15% at 34,000 attendees. Foot traffic at the exhibits and conference was noticeably down, which probably wasn’t helped by the fact that the show was spread between exhibition halls. While some vendors’ booths were still filled with attendees, many others were practically empty.

I heard complaints about the lack of news, the lack of customer meetings and a keynote program that featured many of the same companies, if not the same speakers, from previous years. All of those are valid criticisms. As our industry evolves to encompass more than just wireless service providers, it’s frustrating that a Steve Jobs or a Larry Page isn’t taking the keynote stage along with Robert Dotson and Ivan Seidenberg. And news — well, as a journalist I feel your pain. Even Verizon Wireless — the CDMA stalwart of the U.S. — chose Mobile World Congress as the venue to announce its 4G vendors and deployment plans.

It’s true that there were no big-ticket items I can point to at CTIA. We’re not emerging from the show with fundamental knowledge or insight we didn’t have before. But I still find the show very useful for measuring the undercurrents of the wireless industry. Just as many of you use the show to meet face-to-face with customers or partners, I use it to sit down with people I wouldn’t necessarily get a chance to speak with on a routine basis. Major news items may not come out of those discussions, but they certainly give me a much deeper perspective into the industry. While we don’t have the time or space to post every interview or insight online from the show itself, we certainly have the time after the show ends.