As world economies were healing from the global recessions of 2008-2014, the mobile Internet destroyed global wireless carriers.
While the carriers’ imminent death seemingly happened overnight, it took several years as mobile cloud computing, mobile IP, personal satellite communications systems and global Wi-Fi killed them off.
But it was the massive growth of the mobile Internet that drove the knife into global carriers. There was no mercy.
The WCC (World Communications Consortium) hammered the final nail into carrier coffins.
Few noticed, except the stockholders, who sold their shares rapidly as carrier death was certain, the last one gasping for wireless spectrum. But the mobile Internet–the Web in the Sky–was too enormous, too strong. Carriers buckled.
In the United States, AT&T, ignoring customer concerns, was the first to go, as soon as the WCC discovered they had deliberately conspired to destroy competition.
Verizon’s and other carriers’ continued confrontations with Congress and the WCC brought them to their knees. Consumers switched to Wimax, backhauled to the mobile Internet, to mobile satellite services. Cell towers rusted, antennas falling to the ground.
Surprisingly, Sprint changed its business model, morphing into a global communications provider to 80 nations. In the United States, wireless broadband served all citizens.
As a result of wireless carrier abuse of the public airwaves, the WCC banned cell phone contracts and required all mobile services to permit any compatible phone or mobile device to connect to the mobile Internet through global networks.
Google, Skype, Line2 and other worldwide VOIP providers, delivering free and low-cost wireless phone and data services, grew at over 112% per year. Similar companies challenged the carriers to the bitter end. But the Web won. Carriers slivered into darkness.
Meanwhile, U.S. mobile users readily adopted the European model–purchasing their own handsets, SIM’s and accessories. The Global Wi-Fi Consortium coordinated all provisioning of mobile devices connected to a worldwide Internet cloud spanning all continents. Africa grew the fastest, mobile commerce exploding.
It was an era of mobility, portability and accessibility. All 8 billion people on Earth connected, wirelessly in a global communications web. Many celebrated mobile freedom and innovation. Mobile phones and other devices proliferated.
Android became the global standard operating system for thousands of mobile devices: mobile handsets, wireless game devices, augmented reality, e-readers, tablets, appliances and home entertainment systems. Wireless health grew astronomically.
World economies experienced massive mobile and wireless growth as new organizations, using Android, introduced new devices and applications: mobile cloud computing companies, application developers, handset manufacturers, retailers and innovative mobile service companies.
With the demise of wireless carriers, mobile broadband speeds increased to an average download speed of 100Mbps on wireless 4G networks. Gradually, 6G networks, operating at 8 terabytes per second, created instantaneous connections across continents.
Other than that, the sun rose the next morning and mobile life continued…
About Brian Prows
September 15, 2009 – Wimax from Clearwire hits Silicon Valley
Clearwire, the leader in Wimax mobile broadband, hit the Valley today with a wireless broadband signal covering the Intel and Google campuses in Palo Alto and Mountain View.
During Clearwire’s test of its 4G-enabled service, developers and network experts at Intel and Google will test a system that boasts a download data speed of up to 10Mbps to PC’s and Wimax-enabled mobile phones. This speed exceeds AT&T Wireless’ proposed 7Mbps LTE network not yet available in the United States and challenges wireless carriers to boost data speeds and lower costs.