700 MHz winners beware

CTIA is less than two weeks away, so it's high time we took a closer look at what we're in for at the year's biggest wireless event. We've already parsed the keynotes and covered a lot of the pre-show news (see our full coverage on Telephony's CTIA page). But what will the overall theme of the show be? What's the big hype?

I can tell you Long Term Evolution and WiMAX will be big topics, but you already know that. I'm going to make a not-so-bold prediction and say the dominant distraction of the show will be the 700 MHz auction. The FCC closed the auction yesterday and now we're anxiously waiting the results. Unless the Commission does something squirrelly like immediately re-auction the D block, they should release the results in the coming week. That gives hundreds of infrastructure vendors, developers and potential service provider partners just a few days to absorb its implications before they're let loose in the Las Vegas Convention Center on these hithertoo nameless operators. Talk about being thrown to the wolves...

So the big questions will be: 700 MHz, who's got it? And what are they going to do with it?

Certain companies will be pushing a specific technology very hard. Qualcomm will be looking for more takers for its Forward Link Only kit (if it didn't take most of the E-block spectrum itself). Other vendors won't have a specific technology agenda, just a sales one -- think the Times Square hustler with a gold watches dangling from one side of his inner coat, jewelry on the other, and perhaps a portable CD player (never been played!) in each pocket. Nokia Siemens Networks has it all: LTE? No? How about WiMAX? Interested in mobile TV? We've got a great Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld system right here! Ericsson will have HSPA and LTE. Alcatel-Lucent will all of those plus CDMA2000. Or perhaps you're a smaller provider pondering last-mile broadband access. I'm sure the Alvarions, Apertos and Somas will have your number.

And now that you've made your network decision, how do you want to deploy it? Did someone say femtocells? They're the latest and greatest thing, or so I've heard. Come into my booth let me show you... Flat IP architectures are all the rage. But first you'll need an ASN gateway. Just by chance, I happen to have one around the corner in my stall... These new data networks are going to be capacity hogs -- mucho Mb/s, my friend. Ha! You think you can backhaul that with T-1s! What you need is wireless Ethernet bridge...

Don't forget devices. There's an interesting little open access stipulation on the C-block spectrum, which may produce all different kinds of uninvited party guests on your network. Nokia, Apple and Google will be curious to know how exactly you interpret the FCC's open-access requirement. Will there be a password or a doorman? Should I bring chips?

So to all of you 700 MHz winners out there, I just have one thing to say. Good luck.

Contact me at kfitchard@telephonyonline.com