Imagining PTC: Reflections on CTIA and NAB 2008

by: Mark Hukill, Senior Advisor, PTC

I had the privilege to attend both the CTIA and NAB events in April. Both of these huge tradeshows are billed as the world's largest in the mobile communications and broadcasting domains respectively.

Perhaps what was most striking this year was how much more these two events had in common and how much more of their respective core focus has become integral to telecommunications in general.

Indeed the presence and integration of many telecom companies at NAB spoke volumes to the fact that many types of convergence have not only arrived but are thriving. The strong presence of media organizations at CTIA made it very clear that video, information and other types of content as well as interactive services and applications are all angling toward the mobile, wireless network and device to reach consumers and businesses on a personal level, in a 'take it all with you everywhere' mode.

Digital content, broadband delivery, IPTV and social networking are just a few areas topping a list of activity where traditional domains of wireless, broadcasting, telecoms and IT have not only intersected but are blending more and more. Consumers may eventually see the common provisioning of all-in-one interactive digital media, communications, data, radio and television, social networking and user-generated content facilitation. These melded activities were on display in force, nudging hard against the core of NAB's flashy displays of the very latest in 'traditional' production, management and delivery of broadcast products. CTIA's focus on wireless showed that providing sophisticated services and applications in partnership with many other types of organizations including IT, media and broadcasting, is as essential as highly robust wireless networks and devices.

But there is much more than just VOD or Internet or TV on your mobile device. Rather, it is the development of systems and services that are highly personalized and customized to the individual user. This includes increasingly sophisticated interactivity and the provision of on-demand everything such as location-based services, everyday purchasing and billing, etc. If we were to combine the two tag lines of these events, it becomes clear the next several years will see an increasing push toward a lifestyle of information, business, media and entertainment mobility where an onslaught of new and re-combined content comes to life. Those are the clear trends. More on the place of trends in our overall thinking in a moment.

The telecommunications and broadcast industries have become more closely linked. Both wired and wireless telecoms and television come together strongly in the area of digital interactive services. Universal fiber-to-the-home, however, may be needed to realize telcos' broadband ambitions in the media-sphere and many challenges remain. Certainly the telco industry culture is still not anywhere near the culture of the media even in the best of collaborative efforts. Nonetheless, consumers are now beginning to access digital services over higher bandwidth telephony that allows broadcast-quality content over fixed and mobile networks. Meanwhile, the wireless world of telecoms was falling all over itself at CTIA to show that it can all be done on small, highly robust, take-and-use-everywhere devices with the sooner-than-you-think promise of 4G to provide the broadband solutions, whether that is WiMax alone or WiMax as part of LTE as many are beginning to agree.

The clear message from CTIA for the wireless operators is that it will take increasing collaboration across multiple media, IT, broadcasting and telecoms domains to make a success out of the trends.

For PTC, this is an intriguing time. Major carriers are working to continuously build greater capacity and sophistication in networks that allow for the expansion of interactivity, video, mobile service offerings and more. Many aspire to be media providers themselves. But even at the transport level, just to be able to handle the massive expansion of traffic from broadcasters as they approach 4Gb/sec demands is going to test as never before network supply of all modes including terrestrial wired and wireless, undersea and satellite as was presciently covered in the theme of PTC'08 this past January. All network providers are increasingly partnering with media, Internet and other service, application and content providers. They are all collaborating far more than ever to make it happen as no one entity can possibly do it alone. Indeed to be a player at all, one needs to cooperate extensively as well as compete effectively.

PTC'09 is on the right track in its theme of Collaboration for Change, capturing the essence of industry trends for the next year and beyond. The days are clearly numbered for talking about the mainstream of telecoms, IT, media and broadcasting separately, as they are no longer mutually exclusive structurally or functionally.

But understanding trends is not enough. Futurist Alvin Toffler, author of the celebrated book "The Third Wave" and more recently "Revolutionary Wealth" engaged in a lively conversation at NAB that included his wife and co-author Heidi, his self-admitted 'brains'. Toffler reminded us that trends are not good predictors of the future as they are already a part of the past by the time they are broadly recognized. Toffler gently chided NAB that even its name is now an anachronism. He might have said the same of CTIA...and PTC.

Rather, the future is built on imagination. This means not just the invention and eventual adoption of new technologies, but imagining new and better institutions including political, economic, educational and social. It means inventing from our imagination endeavors suited to our information age, not the age of industrialization. It is acting on what is possible from our imagination -- maybe even seemingly impossible when it comes to changing institutions -- that sets the future.

At CTIA, Sir Richard Branson, the irreverent and highly successful entrepreneur, took a more cheeky approach in his presentation (it was April 1 after all) with a whirlwind of imagination that is key to his success. He even managed to dupe a number of audience members to be volunteers in a plan to send people to Mars now...one-way ticket only!

Wild imagination aside, perhaps the most important message from both events was that we need to look to those with an interest in the future and not a vested stake in the past. A stake in the future across telecoms, the Internet, and broadcasting is "what can we imagine" for both the personalized world of media and information anywhere/anyway and the social, economic and political world of network communications as a predominant way of life.

PTC of course is not primarily a tradeshow and is not anywhere near the massive scale of CTIA and NAB. But size is not the issue. Relevance is. As a not-for-profit, member organization, our mission includes not only enabling members to conduct trade in equipment, technologies, and services, but also to use the power of information and communication technologies to improve the quality of life in the Pacific hemisphere. In particular, it is the latter part of this mission phrase that gives PTC much relevance and carves out its unique space. It is the facilitation of senior-level networking, collaboration and learning through the annual conference event and other activities throughout the year with participation across a broad range of developed and developing countries from across the Asia-Pacific region and globally, that brings many to PTC.

Our future in the melded world of communications will clearly depend on our imagination. With a high number of very senior-level participants that some have likened to a 'Davos of the Pacific in Telecommunications' (a level often missing or inaccessible at other events), PTC is in a position to imagine a leading role.

But, just as many industry events continue to meld, as was clearly evident at two of the largest tradeshows this year, so too PTC must adapt to a future. A future hopefully built on not just an understanding of the trends, but through action of our own imagining.