The top wireless stories of 2010

It’s time for our annual look back at the big wireless stories of 2010. For those who didn’t catch it, earlier this month I wrote up a few predictions for 2011, one of which (AT&T’s use of 4G) is probably already stale in light of recent redefinitions by the International Telecommunication Union. We’ll have to wait to see how the other two predictions turn out. But with only a few days remaining in the year, let’s examine some of the big trends, stories and controversies we visited in 2010.

1) The Mobile Broadband Wars – If it sounds like the technology all over again, you’re right. Multiple high-speed, high-capacity networks emerged in 2010 to challenge Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) and Sprint’s (NYSE:S) WiMax service. T-Mobile (NYSE:DT) got its high-speed packet access plus (HSPA+) network up and running and last month Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) turned the switch on its massive long-term evolution (LTE) rollout. MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) launched the first LTE network a few months earlier, although with a more limited scope. While bandwidth has fallen off the radar in recent years as a marketing tool, the central over-riding theme of those launches was speed—who can deliver the most bits per second to the end user. The controversy surrounding all of these launches was over which of these networks were true 4G networks. That brings us to our next big story…

2) The Controversy over 4G – T-Mobile raised eyebrows when it started calling its new HSPA+ network a 4G network earlier this year. Its logic was simple: If it could offer the same speeds and customer experience as the so-called 4G network operators, why can’t it use the 4G moniker? The controversy blossomed into something much bigger than T-Mobile could have imagined. Operators and the media began raising questions as to whether Sprint, AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon Wireless were actually launching 4G networks under definitions supplied by the ITU, and last week the ITU surprised everyone by retroactively redefining 4G to make everyone happy. If you’d like to read how we’ve decided to deal with semantics mess at Connected Planet, check out Tuesday’s newsletter column.

3) The Emergence of the Tablet – Just the iPhone recreated the smartphone several years ago, Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) new iPad revived a device category—one everyone had written off. Now everyone from Samsung to Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) is imitating it. Tablets proved to be in such high-demand that rather than kill off its single-function predecessors like Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle, sales of any flat large-screened device boomed in sales over the holidays.

4) Putting a Price on the Gigabyte – This is an issue we explored in heavy detail in Connected Planet’s Interactive Feature, The Mobile Data Paradox. After years of capping data for laptops and allowing unlimited consumption for phones, operators attempted to put a more realistic price tag on bytes its customers consume—much to the chagrin of the public. AT&T was the first to step off the precipice with tiered smartphone plans, and VZW revamped its mobile broadband pricing.

5) Farwell to Industry Giants – Consolidation hit the wireless industry with a vengeance this year. Rather than seeing mergers a la Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) and Nokia Siemens Networks (NYSE:NOK, NYSE:SI), we saw the collapse of some of telecoms greatest institutions. The last of Nortel’s divisions were gobbled up Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), Genband and Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN). Meanwhile Motorola (NYSE:MOT) started the process of splitting up, leaving its storied networks business to NSN. That story of consolidation leads us to…

6) The Rise of Ericsson – Ericsson was by no means a small player in North America 18 months ago, but now it’s now arguably the most dominant wireless equipment maker in the US, rivaling Alcatel-Lucent. Not only did it buy up Nortel’s GSM switching and CDMA networks divisions, it landed almost every conceivable contract to be had: Verizon Wireless and AT&T’s LTE builds, Sprint’s network modernization and T-Mobile’s HSPA+ upgrades. Add those activities to its already considerable network outsourcing business here—not to mention its considerable wireline acquisitions--and Ericsson is starting to look a lot less like a Swedish company than an American one.

7) The Overhaul of Backhaul Networks – Backhaul and Ethernet vendors have been talking about this years, but this year if finally happened as operators were forced to upgrade their copper-fed backhaul connections with fiber or point-to-point wireless connections. In many cases backhaul was the key factor holding back mobile broadband deployments as operators like T-Mobile and AT&T sat on HSPA+ upgrades they couldn’t use until they could exchange their T-1 lines for fiber.

8) Android Breaks Through – Android may not have emerged in 2010, but this was the year it established itself as one of the world’s most dominant smartphone platforms. While no individual Android device can match the sheer volumes of any of the four iPhones, Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) OS made up for it with variety. In a single year, Android smartphone sales jumped from 1.4 million to 20.5 million, surpassing iPhone and BlackBerry shipments in Q3. Now Google claims it is activating 300,000 Android devices a day.

9) M2M Makes its Mark – It’s probably too early to say that M2M is a dominant force in mobile, but in 2010, machine-to-machine mobile communications certainly expanded far beyond its traditional markets in vehicle tracking and security. Every industry—from health care to law enforcement, form retail to agriculture—is talking about how embedded wireless will revolutionize their business. And for the first time operators are starting to break out their M2M connections in their reporting to avoid diluting their overall subscriber numbers. We may not be at the point where there are 10 machine connections for every phone connection, but in 2010 the seeds were sewn for such a future.

10) Mobile Broadcast TV Signs Off – This may not have been a huge source of copy in 2010, but Qualcomm’s (NASDAQ:QCOM) canning of FLO TV, quietly closes the curtain on a technology and service many viewed as having a lot of promise. There are several mobile TV efforts still percolating—most significantly the effort pursued by local broadcasters—but for now TV content seems firmly in the hands of the streaming platforms.