Industry’s Convergence Was the Big Buzz at NXTcomm

As you may have heard – and may have attended – the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and USTelecom debuted an event called NXTcomm last month in Chicago . Designed as the one show that would unify our converged industry, NXTcomm was also the venue for five themes that are transforming information, communications and entertainment technology. What are those themes?

For starters, convergence . Convergence is accelerating innovation and shaking up traditional business models for manufacturers and service providers alike.  As Tim McElligot noted in a Telephony NXTcomm Show Daily commentary: “…The industry knows what it needs to do. Its disquiet may stem from the fact that it has known for a long time what it needs to do – yet it has not always done so. This disquiet is healthy. It isn't born of fear, but of realizing better than anyone the enormity of the task ahead and weighing that against the expectations of the marketplace and Wall Street. Convergence has to happen. Interactive multimedia needs to happen. Ubiquitous broadband needs to happen. A wholesale transformation of network and business processes needs to happen. And it all has to happen without a clear vision of the return on investment for doing so.”

Innovation.  In his first keynote address as CEO – given at NXTcomm, by the way – AT&T's Randall Stephenson called Apple's iPhone a “game changer.” Already, we're seeing competition from other companies interested in expanding the potential for mobile music and wireless data services. TIA believes innovation and the competition stimulated by it will spur even greater investments in research and product development, which is good for the industry and good for the global economy. In fact, TIA's market research has shown that in 2007 global telecom revenue will reach $3.3 trillion and by 2010 that number will surge to $4.3 trillion.

Mobility . What was once a prediction has become a reality. According to this year's edition of the TIA's annual Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast , in 2006, global wireless revenues surpassed wireline at $560 billion. Mobility was ubiquitous at NXTcomm, in terms of new wireless applications and devices. This underscores data compiled by TIA in its Market Review showing that wireless communications service spending in 2007 is pegged at $143 billion, and that's just in the U.S.

The customer . It's the final destination for the innovative products and services that were on display at NXTcomm. Customers' desire for broadband-driven technology, whether they are consumers or enterprises, was a major theme at the show. In fact, I believe a lot of the innovation seen at NXTcomm was driven more by the customer than in years past, and this trend is likely to continue.

Globalization . Technology innovation knows no geographical boundaries. Communications technology is leveling the playing the field and building bridges to better opportunities every day, even in the most remote, newly-developed areas of the world. In China , for example, 80 percent of last year's new wireless additions were in rural areas, according to Mr. Hao Weimin, Vice Chairman of the China Association of Communication Enterprises, one of several experts who participated with me in TIA's “State of a Converged Industry” presentation at NXTcomm. That kind of situation suggests our industry will continue to have a powerful impact that can be felt within local economies and the global economy.

Convergence, innovation, mobility, the customer, globalization: five themes all playing roles in the changes affecting communications, and all quite evident at NXTcomm, the one show that brought all the major industry players – newcomers and veterans alike–together under one roof.

Sincerely,
Grant Seiffert
President
Telecommunications Industry Association