[UAS] CTIA Trip Report

[Macarthur, Robert - (robmac)]

Here is a trip report from a show I went to last week.  This group might be interested in some of the bullets - drones all over the place.

CTIA= Cellular Technology Industry Association who meet every year in Vegas to discuss cellular wireless technology, mobility, and carrier issues.  Venetian/Sands Expo. September 9 - 11.  Many related conferences are held at the same time, including InterDrone (drone technology), Tower Technology (cell towers) M2M (Machine to Machine), Rural Wireless Summit, et. al.

New apps
Mobile video, Internet of Things (IOT), and small cell technology for in-building infrastructure are comer apps. To illustrate:  All the carriers are scrambling to get video (e.g. Verizon acquiring AOL.)   Geotab vehicle tracking with their own floor expo for presentations by app developers for in-vehicle diagnostics, event documentation, real-time order processing, etc.  And in the area of  in-building wireless networking, small cell technology is overcoming DAS and challenging WiFi. They all require more spectrum.
There was also an emphasis on mobile CRM (customer relationship management) tools for tracking you across the mobile ecosystem.

Need more spectrum
Especially with the ramping up of the Internet of Things (IOT) and mobile video the demand for more wireless space is growing at rates that cannot be satisfied by currently available spectrum.   The industry is pressing the FCC to approve and auction more bandwidth.   In a keynote, the FCC  promised an auction in March.  The industry says that is not enough - where is the long term plan to provide more spectrum.  FCC seems more concerned with network neutrality, which the industry sees as a distraction.

Solutions for new apps

*       Unlicensed spectrum use:  Qualcomm & Verizon have plans to use unlicensed spectrum to enhance signal; component parts of the next generation of phones will grab unused spectrum but without interfering with WiFi.  The WiFi Alliance and Google oppose this proposal.   FCC will decide.

*       Monetization:  Mobile video is not like linear video.  It is experienced in 4 to 10 minute segments, so what is the revenue stream for that?  Answer = the oldest mobile app....radio.  Need to work that paradigm

*       "World of attribution"  - means like an enhanced customer relationship management; you have to know who you are talking to.  Messaging must be tracked to a "continuous you" presence across different devices and platforms.  The linear model will not go away, mobile will be added to it.  But nonetheless it is remarkable that contrary to popular belief radio is still the most popular medium at a 93% public usage rate, mobile is next at 87% and linear TV is 71%.  Lesson?  Convenience drives everything and the more mobile the more convenient.


Best in show:

*       Small cell technology/in-building wireless - AT&T

*       Mobile Device Management - AirWatch (AirWatch is the higher ed leader in BYOD; they are coming here Oct. 1)

*       Cisco Fog - under development at Georgia Tech; 'fog" is in between you and the cloud, it is "kinematic context awareness" and can track a vehicle across a landscape, handing the signal off from AP to AP, and keeping running diagnostics and real time analytics.  A new kind of Big Data app; most Big Data Analytics runs on static data or batch.  This is real time over a host of objects doing stream registry and discovery from the real-world context.

Show Winners:
Radio (!) - e.g. iHeart http://www.iheart.com/)
Cisco fog (see above)
AT&T - won the small cell competition
Sprint - they have acquired more spectrum than any other carrier = a power position, and to lure new customers they are offering free phone upgrades every time a new model is released.

Conclusions:

*       Same as always - IT progress = more real time and more granular apps

*       Same risks as before - security, vulnerability, especially with the "World of Attribution"

Lessons for UA and CALS:

*       Clearly the smart phone continues to become an extension of you (looking out my window right now 3 out of 5 are walking looking at the device.) So the more we can engage that device, the more we can "engage" the student (Isn't that one of our strategic goals?)  So, BYOD, MDM, the "world of attribution" would seem to loom large in our future

*       Mobile video is short segments - is there a way to make educational content fit that form factor?

*       Agriculture is loaded with mobile, real time apps - diagnostics, treatments, vehicle management, drones etc.

*       Could small cell infrastructure work for farms and experiment stations (including fields?)

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