A Look Back at CTIA Wireless 2010

Now that it’s been a week since I returned to San Diego from CTIA Wireless, I’ve had the time to gain some perspective on the few days and nights spent in lovely Las Vegas. Here are two of my impressions.

 

First, I was genuinely surprised by the quantity and energy level of attendees at CTIA. Not counting the third / last day (which is always disappointing for any event), the exhibit floor was generally quite full and boisterous. Each time I ventured out to grab a snack or check out other exhibitors, I was impressed by the volume of people who were engaged in discussions or sit-down demonstrations throughout the north and central halls.

 

Such attendance is a positive indicator for the industry at large as it reinforces my strong impression from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month that the dismal days of 2009 are well behind us. Hallelujah. There are never any guarantees when it comes to the future, especially in technology markets, but for now it feels great to be back on the upswing.

 

While there were a handful of ATCA vendor compute blade announcements in the week prior to CTIA touting products based on Intel Xeon series 5600 “Westmere” processors – including from CP-TA member companies ADLINK, Advantech, Continuous Computing, Emerson Network Power, Kontron and RadiSys – most of the folks above were not exhibiting at North America’s largest wireless trade show.

 

CP-TA member companies who DID have bona fide booths at the show, however, include Adax (hi, Drew!), Advantech, Continuous Computing (my team), Emerson Network Power and Polaris Networks (great to see you, Bud!). CP-TA’s own Technical Working Group leader Nirlay Kundu was also there, as was Shaun White (but the gold-medal-bedecked Flying Tomato is not a CP-TA member – yet!)

 

A second major realization about CTIA is that I was struck by the “arrival” of both femtocells and traffic shaping in the mainstream lexicon of the average attendee. Whereas in the past these areas were primarily the purview of technology and market specialists rather than of the “telecom industry masses” at large, this was the first general trade show that I’ve attended in which most of the folks with whom I interacted were already pretty familiar and comfortable with the concepts.

 

As a result, I spent less time in one-way education mode and more time in two-way discussion mode, which is always more interesting, satisfying and stimulating than the basic primer material.

 

More to the point, though, is that the key market areas of LTE (Long Term Evolution), Femtocells and DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) are maturing to the point where they will soon be as accepted as concepts such as WiFi, netbooks and web site cookies. This is good for us all, as the deployment of these technologies by network operators will help drive additional demand for core and edge xTCA infrastructure, a sweet spot for many CP-TA member companies.

 

Please let me know if you have any feedback regarding your own impressions of CTIA or MWC. I’m always interested in hearing what our members (and prospective members!) have to say.

 

Onward and upward,

Brian