The Permanence of Innovation

One year ago, a dramatically different Wireless Review made its debut. The intent of our editorial redesign was to bring this publication up to the standards of an audience that puts technology in motion. Our goals were to explore the people and companies making the biggest bets on wireless innovation, and to keep our service provider readers on top of all the technology developments taking place in the sector.

It was a turbulent year — one that did little to assuage financial fears. The irony of that economic reality is that wireless innovation has survived — even flourished at times. Evidence of that can be found throughout the pages of the 12 monthly issues we have published since March 2002 (and at www.wirelessreview.com), as well as in the issue you're reading now.

We chronicle how core network technologies and equipment — from switches and base stations to towers and antennas — are evolving, and how the strategies of their developers alter to adapt to changes in wireless carrier priorities and spending patterns. We profile the vendors driving the back-office revolution: the toolmakers whose products serve to optimize, test, measure, manage and protect network assets, as well as bill for the services those networks carry.

We cover the development of new applications designed to improve carriers' return on investment by bringing more traffic — and more revenue — onto their networks. We explore technologies and strategies breaking new ground, such as the efforts of newcomers like Cometa Networks and Boingo Wireless to proliferate Wi-Fi, and the mobile virtual network operator model pursued by companies like Virgin Mobile.

We also analyze important new regulatory developments, appraise the marketing efforts of the wireless sector and assess the future of venture capital investment in wireless — the financial epicenter from which all innovation comes. We even shed some light on what happens to wireless technology outside the confines of our industry, especially when it gets in the hands of university researchers, rogue technologists and masters of ergonomics and design.

This issue is no different. In our cover story, Dan O'Shea takes an in-depth look at how Microsoft is working to catch up to mobile opportunities it has thus far missed. We also profile Aruba Networks, one of the companies at the forefront of the Wi-Fi switching phenomenon, and take you inside Portal Software's plans to turn its billing intelligence into wireless riches. And in the coming months, we'll look at the future of wireless network testing, carriers' enduring 3G network evolution strategies and the continuing encroachment of wireless technology into the enterprise.

Economic difficulty continues to put pressure on wireless, and on the telecom industry overall, but ongoing R&D efforts, the continued commitment of investors and the irrefutable fact that the technology future is a wireless one keep this industry vital. Here's to the enduring nature of invention.