inCode, a VeriSign Company has announced its Top 10 predictions for the game-changing events that will shape the wireless industry in 2008. The predictions cover major trends ranging from who will win the communication standard wars, what role Google will play in the wireless world after January’s spectrum auction and whether or not consumers will finally open up to digital content and mobile advertising.
“The coming year is going to be incredibly important for the wireless industry as new business models begin to take shape,” said Jorge Fuenzalida, vice president of communications consulting for inCode, a VeriSign company. “Beginning with the spectrum auction in January, to the continuing battle between fourth-generation (4G) technologies LTE and WiMAX, to what it’s going to take to make converged wireless a reality, wireless will look significantly different in several critical ways one year from today.”
2008 predictions include; Materialisation of RF Technology Convergence ; Emergence of a new Wholesale Carrier Will be Born; Device Proliferation; Open Access as an Emerging Business Model; Quality of Service Differentiation; Wireless Broadband Will Be More About Speed Than Mobility; P2P – From Theft Model to Business Model; In-building and Femtocells; Backhaul Makes a Haul – A Move From Wireline to Wireless; Mobile Advertising Gains Steam and Mobile Device Security.
Mobile service quality will continue to deteriorate for the eighth year in a row. The combination of new technology (3G), multi-band, multi-radio access technology, advanced and complex handsets, least-cost routing and outdated roaming solutions have made mobile services less reliable than they were before the introduction of 3G. This means more dropped calls, poorer quality calls, and more failed call set-ups for the user. There will be a growing market for more robust phones with a single band, fewer features and longer battery life for people that are really dependent on a reliable phone service.