I came in while John Chen, CEO of Sybase was speaking. He talked about how wireless is enabling mobile banking, commerce and philanthropy. Interesting stuff. But the best part was when he set the stage (perhaps unwitting, perhaps not) for the second speaker, Dr. Kristina Johnson, an undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Energy. Chen starting talking about various federal agencies, FCC, FTC etc., and called them the F-words.
When Johnson came up on stage, she didn’t exactly return the compliment, but she didn’t have much to say about wireless telecommunications or the mobile phone industry either. She spent her time hitting the Obama administration’s talking points on the Obama administration, and on energy. That’s when my real time tweets started…
CTIA keynote, Kristina Johnson, under secty US Dept of Energy, canned speech, need to save energy, glaciers disappearing, I’m melting! #ctia
Fortunately, at a mobile phone conference,
people know how to entertain themselves
So far, Johnson could be talking to a bulldozer convention #ctia
Johnson talking about need to modernize electrical grid, smart electrical load shifting, manages to mention wireless a couple of times #ctia
Johnson congratulates wireless industry for creating jobs #ctia
Talking about consumer privacy as major issue for modernizing grid #ctia
Johnson wraps up, modern grid, jobs, saving energy important, zip about wireless, good speech for attitude assessment, bad for info #ctia
Lowell McAdam, president Verizon Communication, coming up now, but first the obligatory corporate image wallpaper video #ctia
McAdam has good sense of humor, pokes fun at the dull video, proves he’s smarter than his marketing people #ctia
McAdam talking about increasing connections, history of decision to go with LTE, warming up for his LTE announcement #ctia
LTE is about speed & latency, speed goes up 10x, latency cut in half #ctia
700 MHz better at penetrating bldgs, with lower latency allows more real time m2m control functions, enables smart buildings & homes #ctia
McAdam shows map of 2010 4G LTE launch markets, the big announcement, 38 markets, says will cover 70% of pops on average in each #ctia
McAdam says one-third of US population covered by LTE/4G this year, two-thirds in 18 months, complete buildout in 2013 #ctia
McAdam sez Verizon will partner with rural operators to bring broadband service to unwired homes #ctia
McAdam: 4G world needs openess, Verizon is poster child for walled gardens, will change, sez now working with third party developers #ctia
4G future needs standards and openess sez McAdam, “time to turn on the afterburners and get ready for the next generation of wireless” #ctia
#ctia show floor now open, keynotes over