Cut the Cord-- It's a Wireless World!

Last week, North America's largest wireless industry convention -- International CTIA Wireless -- rolled around to New Orleans. The annual event, organized by CTIA- The Wireless Association, is the second largest wireless conference in the world; the largest is the Mobile World Congress held each February (in recent years exclusively in Barcelona).


How large an industry?  The attendance forecast for this year's event was between 60 - 70,000 persons and it certainly seemed to fill the convention zone...and French Quarter at night.


I arrived Sunday to be in position for two events on Monday.


Our JumpStart Global Advisors partner firm, 151 Advisors, in collaboration with the Enterprise Mobility Foundation, ran an all day educational event on Monday called "APP-solutely Enterprise," a highly interactive, fast-paced learning and networking event bringing together CIOs, IT leaders and corporate decision makers to discover how they can take advantage of the power of mobile applications in their organizations.


Later that day, our mobile security client, Snap Secure (part of Snap MyLife, Inc.) participated in the ShowStoppers private press event at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel (on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter).  This event, open to media, bloggers and industry analysts, provided the chance for cutting edge wireless technology companies to present their companies, products and services on a one-on-one basis to the press corp.




Michael Subhan (l.) and Robert Kao (r.) of Snap MyLife

Our team consisted of VP of Marketing Michael Subhan and VP of Product Management Robert Kao. We demonstrated the personal privacy protection features of Snap Secure -- over and over again for three hours.
Come 9 p.m., we were ready for a New Orleans feast which we heartedly engaged in at Bourbon House.


On Tuesday, the exhibition floor opened and I was able to walk the floor to view the more than 1,000 exhibitors on display.  You name it -- and it was represented at CTIA: wireless carriers, handset manufacturers, software companies, credit card and mobile banking firms, infrastructure firms, mobile apps, mobile consumer electronics, retail marketing firms, WiFi and mesh companies, accessory firms and more.

Dan Mead, President & CEO, Verizon Wireless

Dan Hesse, CEO, Sprint Nextel Corporation

Philipp Humm, CEO & President, T-Mobile USA

Ralph de la Vega, President & CEO, AT&T Mobility

Jim Cramer, host, CNBC's Mad Money

Jim Cramer served as moderator

The highlight for me was the afternoon keynote address which features the CEOs of the four major U.S. carriers -- Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, Sprint and T-Mobile.  Each of the CEOs, on stage individually at first, were given the chance to address the thousands listening in the ballroom and share their vision for the industry, address competitive issues and share their company's positioning. The 'soft sniping' at each other was fun -- for those of us in the room -- it was a game of inside baseball.  The fun part, half way in, was when CNBC's Jim Cramer came out to moderator a discussion with all four CEOs. The questions ranged from mild to ascerbic; the cross-banter captivating.


My takeaway -- as rapid as the growth of wireless has been over the last decade -- we haven't seen ANYTHING YET.  As 4G speeds move from marketing hype into reality, and new handsets and applications are developed to take advantage of them (let alone 5G and 6G), watch your wireless device (phone, tablet, PC) continue to morph and dominate our wireless and connected lifestyle. We will become ever more connected and reliant on our wireless gadgets to establish our identity, pay bills, communicate (voice, data, video conference, etc.), monitor our health, protect ourselves and our families, entertain us and much more.


It's truly time to cut the cord.... and enter the brave new wireless world.