Wireless: New Salvation for ISPs?

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

 Wireless: New Salvation for ISPs?
 April 14, 2004
<http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3340401>


WASHINGTON -- More than 100 million households will have wireless broadband 
capability within the next six years, Federal Communications Commission 
(FCC) Wireless Bureau Chief John Muletta predicted Wednesday during an 
IPSCON keynote address.

 As broadband becomes widely available, wireless Internet connections and 
services are becoming an attractive alternative for the independent ISPs 
who are holding their semi-annual conference here this week.

 With cable companies and incumbent telephone carriers currently 
dominating the traditional home broadband market and other high-speed 
platforms such as broadband over electric power lines, satellite, and 
third- and fourth-generation wireless mobile technology still years away, 
wireless is one of the top topics at ISPCON.

 "The time is near and we want to make sure applications ride seamlessly 
over wireless platforms," Muletta said. "We want to make sure the 
regulations don't get in the way."

 Muletta, the former president of PSINet Ventures, said several elements 
must be in place for the great wireless leap forward. He cited the success 
of the cell phone industry as an example of a flexible regulations, 
combined with competition for customers who were willing to pay for new 
technology.

 "The right equipment, the right scale, the right spectrum and the right 
time -- they were all in place," Muletta said, adding that spectrum 
auctions over the last 10 years have generated more than $14 billion. "I 
think we got it right with the PCS band."

 Delivering broadband services over the new wireless pipes will drive new 
economic forces for ISPs, Muletta said.

 "I predict all these wireless devices will have the capacity to do 
broadband. They will be Internet Protocol-based and interoperability will 
be key," Muletta said. "There will be bundling with these services, a sort 
of family broadband plan."

 Muletta's speech was sandwiched between forums designed to help ISPs find 
new ways to generate revenue. Voice over Internet Protocol , Web hosting 
and wireless services are all on the ISPs' agenda.

 "If you're a dial-up ISP, it's going away," Dave Robertson, CEO of 
STIC.net told fellow panel members Wednesday. "The ISP that can't find a 
way into broadband is going to go away. You have to find something that 
customers can't do or won't do. You're going to have to become an 
applications service provider."

 Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows, a Toronto-based ISP, added, "Old ISPs don't 
die, they just become another business.

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