The keynotes: Day 1

Orlando, Fla.--The CTIA’s Wireless 2002 show opened here today with a surprisingly jam-packed keynote session and lively discussion about technology innovation and market development that left economic reality aside, at least for the moment.

To be fair, the show’s opening session did start out with a quick chat between Tom Wheeler, the CEO of CTIA and the annual event’s interminable host, and Nancy Victory, the U.S. assistant secretary of commerce and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, during which the myriad issues surrounding spectrum availability and allocation—issues central to advanced technology deployment and the commercial success of 3G—were touched upon briefly. That was followed by a tête-à-tête between Wheeler and Lucent CEO Patricia Russo, who is only 60 days into her second tenure as a Lucent Technologies exec, that similarly sugar-coated many of the realities facing Lucent and the wireless industry as a whole.

The real whiz-bang next-generation wireless talk came later, when Sky Dayton, the founder of Earthlink who has recently become the toast of the wireless set as the founder and CEO of Wi-Fi pioneer Boingo Wireless. The young, geekish Dayton shared the stage with VoiceStream Chairman John Stanton, a one-time wireless upstart who is nearly an industry dinosaur when compared to Dayton. Wheeler pitted old against new--and WAN against LAN--as he led a discussion about the wonders of Wi-Fi and the challenges of integrating wireless LANs and carrier systems.

The Wireless 2002 show floor is certain to provide more of a reality check, especially when it comes to technology limitations and the spectrum and capital shortages that continue to plague the wireless sector along with the rest of telecom. But it’s good to see that even economic downturns can’t sap the wireless hype machine.