Overtaxed, mobile broadband networks a key theme - CTIA 2010 preview

Mobile broadband is the topic du jour of the industry these days, so it stands to reason it'll be a major focus at next week's CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas.

LTE likely will take a prominent place as major vendors demonstrate their take on the network technology, though most such presentations likely will reuse marketing efforts from the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, which wrapped just last month. Unlike MWC, however, expect LTE news and demonstrations to take on a more local flavor--such as how CDMA operators can effectively deploy LTE--noted Peter Jarich, vice president with Current Analysis.

And while WiMAX had a scant showing at MWC, the CTIA show should be different given the fact that Clearwire and its partners Sprint Nextel, Comcast and Time Warner Cable are aggressively moving along the WiMAX path. Expect the big message from these players to be Clearwire's vast spectrum holdings. Don't be surprised to hear Clearwire CEO William Morrow and Sprint CEO Dan Hesse drilling home that very message during their respective keynote addresses.

Of course, another major theme we'll hear at the show is the data traffic overburdening operators' 3G networks. Lots and lots of solutions addressing this problem--ranging from data offloading to WiFi and femtocells to intelligent networking solutions--will be in full force at the show. Expect Nokia Siemens Networks to expound on its argument that smartphone signaling is one of the biggest contributors to the network congestion problem--not just capacity. Not surprisingly, NSN said it has built technology into its offerings to address the signaling issue.

The evolved packet core (EPC) too has become a prevalent topic. During last year's CTIA show, vendors were just beginning to talk about it. This year, Cisco--via its acquisition of Starent Networks--will play up its strength in the space. Expect to hear more about Juniper's EPC play and whether it has a chance in the mobile market.

One other change from last year's show likely will be a de-emphasis on broadband stimulus funding. At this time last year, it was thought that wireless broadband could win a nice chunk of the $7.2 billion the federal government is doling out. But that's been a massive disappointment as middle-mile fiber projects have turned out to be the favorite.