New WCA chief promises to rejuvenate association

Fred Campbell

Though only acting CEO, new Wireless Communications Association president Fred Campbell is trying to make the most of his interim job, saying he’s committed to moving the WCA forward as the economy and competing events whittle away attendance at the broadband wireless organization’s annual trade show and symposium.

Last week, founding CEO and President Andrew Krieg resigned his post after 15 years, and the board named Campbell, a former FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau chief, as Krieg’s interim replacement. The board has launched a nationwide search for a permanent replacement, though Campbell is a likely candidate for the position, saying he would accept the role if offered. Board member and WCA AT&T representative Hank Hultquist said the search should last about 3 months.

The biggest challenge Campbell faces in his short tenure is ensuring the WCA’s annual Symposium and Business Expo in November is a success. Campbell said the WCA is already encouraged by the interest in sponsors and exhibitors for the event. The biggest coup for the WCA is Google’s primary sponsorship of the event. The Internet search giant has become much more of a telecom player, adapting more of its service for the mobile deck, developing its own mobile operating system Android and even bidding in last spring’s 700-MHz auction. Google, however, has eschewed many other wireless industry events such as CTIA Wireless, which is unsurprising considering the opposition CTIA has taken to Google’s lobbying for open-access and other controversial broadband policies.

In fact, Campbell said the WCA’s more agnostic role in the industry gives it advantage in attracting members compared to competing organizations advocating for a particular set of operators or for a particular technology. “One of the attractive features of the WCA is that it’s focused on wireless broadband but not on a single technology or a single aspect,” Campbell said.

Ironically, as broadband wireless has become a much bigger sector, attendance at WCA events has fallen in part because the lines between mobile wireless and broadband wireless have blurred. Since the introduction of WiMAX and other 4G technologies like Long Term Evolution, different associations have taken up their associated broadband wireless policy angles. New associations such as the WiMAX Forum have spearheaded WiMAX policy and development efforts, while CTIA has embraced LTE issues as well as balancing the needs of its WiMAX membership. The days in which broadband wireless was a separate industry with its own distinct set of operators and vendors have vanished.

Krieg is entering into a strategic consulting practice as well as taking a research affiliate’s position at George Mason University’s National Center for Technology and Law.