Thursday, February 14, 2002

Want to meet Sky Dayton of Boingo Wireless and Earthlink fame?   Sky Dayton is playing a major role in getting wireless data into the hands of consumers, and that role has recently expanded.    Sky is the founder of Earthlink, which offers a variety of wireless data services tied into Earthlink's e-mail capabilities.  Sky recently announced the formation of Boingo Wireless, which is aggregating 95 percent of the available 802.11b hotspots installed by the national (of sorts) WiFi networks.   He will be speaking at Wireless Data University (WDU) as part of a roundtable discussion I'm moderating on wireless LANs (802.11) and wireless PANs (Bluetooth) and the impact on cellular.   I’m also doing a roundtable discussion on the realities of wireless location technology.  What can and cannot be accomplished today?  LocatioNet and Qualcomm are among the participants.   We'll also have three-hour tutorials about the basics of wireless data, wireless applications and how the wireless industry has been shooting itself -- and consumers -- in the foot (and what to do about it).   Andy Seybold and I created WDU six years ago as an intensive day-long, executive-level tutorial in conjunction with the CTIA.    WDU will be held March 17 in Orlando, Fla., at the Orange County Convention Center, the day before the start of the CTIA's Wireless 2002 conference and exposition.  Some 650 people attended WDU at Wireless 2001.   So if you want to hear and speak with one of the movers and shakers of the wireless Internet industry (as well as many other top wireless data executives), you should be at WDU. 9:35:59 AM

Got $50,000?  Sponsor WiFi at Wireless 2002 The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) is working hard to get 802.11 coverage throughout the Orange County Convention Center for Wireless 2002, March 18 - 20 in Orlando.  It has been strongly encouraging, so to speak, the convention center to improve its WiFi coverage. It looks as if Wireless 2002 attendees and exhibitors could get extensive coverage.  True "wireless Internet."   But to enable everyone to get free access the CTIA needs a sponsor for $50,000.  The convention center WiFi operator is unable to bill attendees individually!   The CTIA expects 40,000 attendees expected and more than 1,000 exhibitors at Wireless 2002.   If you manufacture WiFi cards, for example, the CTIA will let you sell or lease cards (or give them away, if you like) with a free stand outside of the exhibit hall.  You'll get plenty of publicity and signs from the CTIA.   As I've written previously in "Wireless Blogging," (among other places), I believe wireless Internet access will change -- for the better -- the way public conferences and corporate meetings are operated.   I don't get anything from publicizing this for the CTIA, except the satisfaction of encouraging the use of WiFi.   If you are interested in sponsoring WiFi coverage, contact Robert Mesirow, the vice president of conferences and business development at the CTIA.  His e-mail address is rmesirow@ctia.org. 9:12:34 AM

New York Times:  3G, "marketing eflluvium" and me Today's New York Times has several articles about the present and future of cellular communications.  "The Future of Cellphones Is Here.  Sort Of," has a great phrase about today's often-misleading marketing efforts:  "promotional effluvium."  The Times reporter, Katie Hafner, told me she was pleased the editors kept that phrase! Katie interviewed me a few times for the article and I'm quoted about the subscribers' chances for getting the theoretical maximum data rates hyped by cellular operators. Katie writes at the end of the article: "Buy into 3G now and you are buying a promise.  Wait another year or two and you are more likely to be buying into the real thing." It's really sad.  The cellular industry just doesn't understand that hyping products and services isn't winning them friends.  The public is smarter than the wireless data marketers.  The marketers are only fooling themselves.   The perfect poster for cellular voice and data marketers If you create cellular advertising and marketing campaigns, this is perfect for you:  Check this out. As I consultant, I think I'm going to order this.  As an obnoxious snob since high school -- and proud of it -- I'm going to order this and this. 8:35:16 AM