A TELEPHONY STAFF REPORT

One of the common criticisms of most telecom industry trade shows is that they are too “vendor-centric” — that the events, which in theory are directed at service provider attendees, focus too much on technology in a vacuum, ignoring network and market realities about how and when technology can be applied.

But if Supercomm 2005 is in keeping with new trends in the technology development realm, this year could mark a major shift in the kind of show the industry has come to expect.

In researching the content for this issue of Telephony part of a broader Supercomm package comprised of this issue, a special industry report published in the June 6 issue and a Supercomm Highlights issue published June 27, which will include in-depth news and analysis from the event — our writers and editors found that service providers are exerting far more influence on the pacing and direction of technology development. That's significant for an industry that was once held up as an example of the evils wrought by the advancement of technology strictly for technology's sake. Perhaps owing to that industrywide shake-up and the economic problems it spawned, the timing of technological advancement is now jointly and carefully structured by service providers and their vendor partners and closely tied to the revenue-generating potential of services the technology has the potential to facilitate.

In retrospect, that last bit might sound like a no-brainer: Why would any industry develop and deploy technology that didn't result in immediately available, revenue-generating services? But that was the unfortunate reality of much of the technologies developed during the boom years of telecom's recent past — technologies that, in some cases, are only now beginning to find useful and commercially viable applications in telecom networks.

The coverage that follows, therefore, takes a thorough look at how the role of service provider as technology accelerator fits — or doesn't — across several areas of technology creation, from copper enhancement systems like VDSL2, to high-bandwidth access options like fiber to the premises, to broadband wireless alternatives like WiMAX and beyond. So as you prepare to explore the aisles of the Supercomm 2005 event, take a look for the companies that fit these categories of innovation — and, perhaps most important, the service providers helping to guide those efforts and ensure their livelihoods.