CTIA Highlights: Connected Cars, Distracted Drivers, Spectrum Demand and Mobile Democracy - Dan Hodges

I attended CTIA-The Wireless Association® conference in Orlando this past week and have provided some key themes:

The telecom CEOs highlighted some of the key trends and opportunities in the US market.

Connected Cars:

This is an area of explosive growth. Only four percent of cars are connected cars.

What is a connected car?

A connected car is able to use all of the functionality of your phone in your car.

When a user enters the car with their phone, the operating system of the car reads the phone's address book, music, emails, apps and music and makes it all accessible to the driver.

Distracted Drivers:

The next area covered was distracted drivers.

Sprint is working on a distracted driver initiative with Chrysler. They are working on technology to disable phone usage when drivers go over 10 MPH.

Insurance companies are offering driver cams in cars to offer discounts.

To date, thirty states have banned text messaging from cars.

Spectrum Demand: Increased use of smart phones and tablets are placing high demand on operator networks.

Stats and projections:

55,000,000 tablet sales in 2011

Smart phones exceeded computers with 101 million smart phones, 92 million computers

5 billion apps downloaded in 2010

$4 billion in goods sold on mobile in 2010

The coming spectrum crunch:

60x increase in mobile broadband in the next few years according to Cisco.

Data usage has grown 8,000 percent in the last few years

AT&T expects to grow network use 10x in the next few years

Mobile Democracy

All the panelists acknowledge the role that mobile played in the spring uprisings. Activists used mobile to show the rest of the world what was going on in their countries. Mobile Penetration ranges from 65% to 100% in the Arab world.

About the CTIA

CTIA-The Wireless Association® is an international nonprofit membership organization that has represented the wireless communications industry since 1984. Membership in the association includes wireless carriers and their suppliers, as well as providers and manufacturers of wireless data services and products.

The association advocates on behalf of its members at all levels of government. CTIA also coordinates the industry’s voluntary efforts to provide consumers with a variety of choices and information regarding their wireless products and services. This includes the voluntary industry guidelines; programs that promote mobile device recycling and reusing; and wireless accessibility for individuals with disabilities.

CTIA also supports important industry initiatives such as Wireless AMBER Alerts; "On the Road, Off the Phone," a teen-focused safe driving public service announcement campaign; text4baby, a free mobile educational service to promote the birth of healthy babies; and the "Be Smart. Be Fair. Be Safe: Responsible Wireless Use" program to help parents, educators and policymakers teach kids about responsible mobile behavior, driving and eco-friendly initiatives.

The association also operates the industry’s leading trade shows, as well as equipment testing and certification programs to ensure a high standard of quality for consumers.