Advancing Wireless

Look carefully at the chart on the home page of this issue and you'll notice something interesting. According to TIA’s forthcoming 2008 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast (MR&F), data applications are increasingly driving revenue for wireless carriers, and all indications are that trend will only intensify.

In my time and travels as TIA President, I've visited many member companies and had the chance to witness just how forward-thinking they are. Advanced wireless data is a key element in the business models of virtually every vendor in the industry. TIA members are actively providing for the new, data-enabled services, including text messaging, music, video games, television, global positioning systems, Internet access and other non-voice applications. Our MR&F found that data applications comprised nearly 16 percent of U.S. wireless services revenue in 2007, up from 6 percent in 2005. 

We're witnessing an ICT universe in which wireless data services are on the way to becoming the primary revenue driver. The train has left the station, and the business that doesn't hop on board runs the risk of being left behind.

I wrote last week about the implications of good policy on broadband and wireless penetration; those implications are even bigger when it becomes clear how necessary it is for carriers and vendors alike to conform their business models around the consumer and enterprise desire for ever more data-rich applications. While it's far from clear which applications and resources will come to dominate the wireless market, and it's just as uncertain which policy federal and state governments will adopt to complement it, one thing we know for sure: Not only the industry's, but the country's growth depends on getting broadband access to all Americans, whether in inner cities or in the most rural counties. 

Thank you,
Grant Seiffert
President
TIA