Orlando bound

It’s that time of year again. CTIA’s Wireless 2007 kicks off next week in Orlando, and I--as I imagine many of you shall be--will be running around in a frenzy for four straight days. If you see me rampaging across the show floor, please feel free to pass me a bottle of water or maybe a mint. I’m sure I’ll need both.

You’re probably expecting some insights from me about what to expect. Sorry, I have no private information to share. The major vendors and carriers were much more reluctant to give a heads-up on their CTIA activities this year. Perhaps that means they have big news they don’t want getting away from them--taking a page from Steve Jobs book perhaps--or maybe they really aren’t announcing anything at all.

That said, you can expect some a few companies to be puffing out their chests at CTIA. Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm will surely be making a to do about their new Mobile TV service. And they’ll have the goods to show off. Orlando may not be one of the official market launches for MediaFLO USA, but Qualcomm has the FCC go-ahead to use its 700 MHz spectrum, and if it doesn’t have Orlando live yet its surely has a demo network blanketing the convention center and environs.

Also expect the Asian vendors to stand out. While this certainly won’t be the first CTIA where Huawei, ZTE and its Chinese brethren have shown up in full force, they might have some news to back up their boasting this year. Chinese vendor TCL has already made it known it plans to launch the first Alcatel-branded handset in the U.S. at CTIA, and ZTE and Huawei may be carrying their huge handset success in Europe to the U.S. Huawei also recently declared that it was the became the largest UMTS vendor in the world as measured by new sales. It may have signed 26 UMTS/HSDPA contracts last year, but I’m sure Ericsson and Nokia are bound to disagree.

In any case, something interesting is bound to be lurking under the glaring lights of the Orange County Convention Center. Hopefully you’ll read about it on our site first. Remember to check TelephonyOnline.com for regular news updates throughout the day as well as the magazine itself being distributed on the show floor. See you in Orlando.

Contact me at kfitchard@telephonyonline.com