Back in August, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved three Notice of Inquiries (NOI) covering issues on innovation and investment in wireless; competition in the wireless industry; and consumer protection and access to information about communications services.  Mobile Future took the opportunity to respond to the FCC's investigations with reply comments filed on behalf of the coalition.  The reply comments focused on the recent paper sponsored by Mobile Future, "Why the iPhone Won't Last Forever and What the Government Should Do to Promote Its Successor." You can read Mobile Future's comments here.

In just a couple of years our smartphones may be able to answer these questions for us. Technologists are developing "augmented reality" applications that can take visual information from the web and infer what our surroundings looked like in the past or give us more detailed views of distant objects.

Experts say smartphones of the near future may physically resemble the smartphones of today, but their capabilities will better resemble our computers. Designers and technologists predict that many phones will have foldable screens similar to e-readers of today. Researchers are even experimenting with virtual keyboards, which will allow users to type over an imaginary keyboard while sensors pick up the keystrokes.

A recent article in the New York Times details the exciting developments in smartphone technology. 

Today's smartphones can do almost anything a PC could do in 2007, but in a couple of years smartphones may have enough computing power to enable much more sophisticated applications that truly take advantage of the device's portability.

This is good news for smartphone users. If you love your phone, but prefer your laptop keyboard and all its capabilities, it may not be too long before you've got the best of both worlds in one portable device.

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Kalil, the Deputy Director for Policy in the Office of Science and Technology, said the Obama Administration understood and respected the immense economic and social benefits of a burgeoning wireless industry.  "We want to create the right policy environment for private sector investment," he said, adding that "[Wireless] innovation is a powerful tool to address the broad range of challenges we face."

As an example, he cited mobile healthcare - "a really promising area."  He also cited the power of wireless in connection with other advances such as nanotechnology, which will soon put the entire contents of the Library of Congress on a device the size of a sugar cube.

At a subsequent panel discussion, Debbie Goldman, an economist with the Communications Workers of America, discussed the linkage between wireless investment and union jobs.  "There are 45,000 union workers in the wireless industry," she said. "Telecom networks are good employment opportunities that offer good career jobs for [union workers]."

Also on the panel was Citi Investment Research analyst Michael Rollins, who discussed the relationship between industry investment and government regulation. "In the telecom industry, you deal with long-life assets," he said. That makes changes in regulation a cause for great concern.

Also presenting at the luncheon were economists Robert Hahn and Hal Singer, who discussed the economic implications of exclusive mobile handset contracts between manufacturers and wireless carriers.  To access their paper, please click here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1477042

Mobile Future staff, as well as several attendees, are live-tweeting today's Mobile Future event at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Click here to see their tweets in real-time.

The event, "President Obama's Innovation Agenda: Spurring Investment and Innovation in the Wireless Sector," features Tom Kalil of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, Bob Hahn, Senior Fellow at the Georgetown Center and Visiting Senior Fellow at Oxford's Smith School, and Hal Singer, President and Managing Director of Empiris.

The forum will conclude with a panel discussion moderated by Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter and featuring Tom Kalil, Debbie Goldman of the Communications Workers of America, and Mike Rollins of Citi Investment Research.

For the 200 million Americans who increasingly rely on their mobile phones to manage their connected lives, this subtle rule change could have a raft of unforeseen consequences, say many mobile operators and the labor unions who work with them. These could include a slowdown in investment, job cuts and worse.

You can read Jonathan's op-ed here.

The majority of area school districts - Houston and Klein joined the ranks last month - now allow parents real-time online access to their children's grades, assignments and attendance reports. Parents can set up triggers that send e-mails or texts at the first sign of trouble.

For many parents these updates have become an invaluable tool: allowing them to stay updated on their children's education, while opening new lines of communication between parents, students and teachers. Parents are not only able to stay informed of how their children are doing, but also what they are learning - making those dinnertime "what did you learn in school today" conversations a little more productive.

Schools in Texas aren't the only ones to take advantage of wireless technology. Earlier this month a principal in Algonquin, Ill. gave his cell phone number to all 2,500 students at Jacobs High School during the morning announcements.

In his announcement, the principal asked all students and staff to text-message him anytime day or night with safety-related concerns or to report a school disruption. Some of those things could include knowledge of students with drugs, alcohol or weapons; gang-related activity; or a planned student fight on school property.

In a school where 90 percent of students send text messages, Principal Michael Bregy says the idea has helped foster a safe learning environment and let him connect with students in a way that they feel comfortable with.

Many schools and universities throughout the nation also use text messages as a way of informing students and parents of emergencies and cancellations. Texts have been used to inform parents of cancellations because of inclement weather and to give students real-time instructions in potential emergency situations.

Such messages are not only a convenience and a better way of staying informed, but also an example of how mobile technology has become a vital means of keeping students safe and improving education.

It's great to see so many schools using wireless technology to benefit students. We're excited to see what kind of innovative ideas educators will come up with next.

Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter just published a Huffington post entry that discusses the wireless catch 22 of extending proposed net neutrality rules to the wireless industry at a time when we are facing a looming spectrum crisis. 

With mobile data traffic growing at 100 times the rate of wireless voice traffic, a serious supply-demand imbalance is headed our way - one that can only be relieved by government leadership to make more spectrum available to keep pace with consumer demand. The technological and policy quandary? How to address this profound and pressing national need, while at the same time asserting that we have to potentially make the crisis worse by fixing these fast-evolving networks with what are widely viewed as unworkable engineering mandates.

What's the solution - long-term strategies and data-driven decision-making.  Read more about Jonathan's suggestions in the article here.

Every year, SuperComm brings together industry leaders in broadband equipment, converged networks and digital content. This year's show features industry leaders sharing their views on broadband expansion and innovation, along with hundreds of suppliers showcasing their products and services.

We are looking forward to seeing some of the exciting new innovations in wireless technology, and hearing panel discussions on the National Broadband Strategy and its impact on green broadband, digital content, service-oriented networks and social media. 

We hope you can make it to the show, and that you'll visit the Mobile Future Booth (#3229) in the West Building of McCormick Place!

Remember Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD?  How about Beta vs. VHS? 

For anyone who gets frustrated when industries can't agree on consumer product standards, this is good news: Mobile users who want to stream TV won't have to deal with annoying format disputes. 

"Manufacturers and broadcasters had already been moving forward with the preliminary technical standard for Mobile Digital Television, but now the standard has been finalized by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC). 

"Friday's formal announcement of the standard adoption by ATSC means that everyone can move forward knowing that the technical specs are set in stone." 

Look at how fast this is progressing. In January, not a single local TV station beamed mobile phone-ready video. By mid-summer, mobile users in Raleigh, NC and Washington, DC became the first to enjoy  mobile TV and by year's end, consumers in nearly 30 of the nation's top markets will have this option. 

Link: http://www.mobilefuture.org/cms/www.rbr.com/tv-cable/17829.html

The first phones with Google's Android operating system, which enables augmented reality, have come out in the past year. The iPhone debuted a compass app in June, and Apple recently joined Google in making it possible for software developers to overlay images on the phone's camera view. And other companies are following suit.

Amsterdam-based Layar recently released an augmented reality browser for Android phones. Layar lets you search for things on Google, but delivers the results based on your location as determined by the GPS readout. Users also can sign up to have certain types of information automatically appear on phone screens. The company is working on a 3-D function that it hopes to release in November.

Another "augmented reality" leader is Yelp, a Web site with business reviews written by customers.  After the iPhone got a compass, Yelp created Monocle, an app allowing information to overlay onto a real-time view of the world. Built by a Yelp intern, Monocle combines the iPhone's camera view with tiny tags indicating the names, distances and user ratings of proximate businesses.

And then there is Robotvision, a 99-cent program built by Portland, Ore.-based developer Tim Sears. Hold your phone parallel to the ground and Robotvision displays a map of your surroundings. Hold the phone up, and Robotvision hits augmented-reality, highlighting places like coffee shops and bars.

Sure, there are some issues hindering augmented reality apps.  There are technological limitations - cell phones need to be more powerful, cameras and graphics improved, and GPS more precise. But, as cell phones get even smarter and GPS and wireless networks improve, consumers may be spending more time in a virtually enhanced world.

Comissioner Baker kicked off the conversation and set the tone for the forum as she proclaimed: "I'm here because wireless is so important."  She discussed the meteoric rise of mobile and how it will be a key component of the overall broadband plan that will be submitted to Congress in February 2010.  Commissioner Baker is excited about the explosion of wireless data but very concerned about "the spectrum pipeline drying up."  She hopes that the Commission can identify additional spectrum for carriers but also do it in a timely fashion.  She noted how long it took to free up spectrum for cellular, PCS, as well as the DTV spectrum.  Overall, she wants to mitigate uncertainty in regulatory policies and acknowledged that such uncertainty can lead to higher prices for consumers - "this is something we can ill-afford in building a connected nation."

Nevile Ray, Senior Vice President, Engineering & Operations (T-Mobile), provided the carrier perspective.  He echoed Ms. Baker's comments regarding the explosion of data and was emphatic that operators are "not standing still."  In T-Mobile's case, they are evolving to HSPA+ as an interim step to LTE.  Mr. Ray believes that increasing spectral efficiency, increasing cell site deployments, and more spectrum will be critical to meeting the mobile broadband explosion.

Sue Spradley, President, North America (Nokia Siemens Networks), talked about the business challenges.  Ms. Spradley stated that "the real challenge as usuage goes up is revenue per user doesn't necessarily go up" and that the whole "ecosystem is under tremendous pressure."  She cited that the time it to for GSM to evolve to HSPA was long and that the evolution to LTE will "happen quicker because the ecosystem demand is driving it."  She also urged regulators to take a "balanced approach" with "no sweeping regulatory changes" because it will cause the industry to "stop and wait."

Erik Ekudden, Head of Technology and Industry (Ericsson), beat the drum for more spectrum and global harmonization in band allocations.  Mr. Ekudden predicts "everyone on Earth is going to want mobile broadband" and the ITU states that industry will need a minimum of 1,280 MHz by the year 2020.  

Overall, I believe the forum could best be summed up by the response to a question regarding cell site density and whether it could make up the difference for a lack of spectrum as consumers continue to utilize wireless broadband.  The panel addressed it by saying that reuse would only mitigate the problem but Ms. Spradley quoted Wayne Gretzky and said "a good hockey player plays where the puck is and a great hockey player plays where the puck is going."  Thus, industry and regulators in tackling these issues need to plan where the "puck is going." 

"As a Hispanic-American, I am proud our community is leading the way in wireless adoption, and I'm excited to see how this adoption can be applied to bolster the community as a whole - from entrepreneurial opportunities and health care to education and law enforcement."

In addition sharing his thoughts on wireless usage in the Hispanic community, Art also discusses how wireless technology can assist public safety officials in keeping communities safe.  You can read Art's op-ed here.

The Chairman also commending AT&T's decision yesterday to allow VoIP over its wireless network and Verizon's partnership with Google to roll out phones using Android, noting, "These are both wins for consumers."

Genachowski’s keynote speech outlined four FCC goals aimed at aiding the wireless industry in providing mobile broadband to consumers: unleashing more spectrum for 4G; removing obstacles to building 4G; establishing “rules of the road” for a free and open Internet; and fostering transparency and competition in the marketplace. In advancing this agenda, Genachowski called for the wireless industry’s participation, saying, "We want you to be engaged. We need you to be engaged."

The audience broke into applause when Genachowski said he planned to speed up the approval for cell sites, which can be one of the biggest challenges to rolling out new services.

In looking forward, the Chairman made it clear that his top concern regarding the future of mobile is “the looming spectrum crisis.”  He asked: "What happens when everyone has an iPhone, Palm Pre or BlackBerry Tour, or whatever is the next smartphone device? The short answer is that we will need a lot more spectrum."

The Chairman closed by stating that the commission's future actions would be "fact based" and "data driven." He also highlighted the industry’s prominent role in the communications ecosystem. "All of you are changing the world," Genachowski said. "Mobile is central to our mission.”

With regard to Chairman Genachowski's speech, this will be his first big industry keynote and it comes a few weeks before he plans to introduce a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on Open Internet Regulations which would affect the wireless industry.  Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter provided his thoughts on the potential regulations last week.  Accordingly, it will be interesting to see if he adds any new insights or perspectives before the October FCC Open Meeting on October 22.

As futurists know, I'm a big believer in the power of social networks and how they have changed the communications landscape forever.  With that in mind, our panel will further focus on this topic and whether Social Networking is just "entertainment" or an "essential" service for consumers and businesses.

Hope to see YOU in SD and please swing by the Mobile Future booth (#218) near the Developer's Pavilion!

Now, thanks to a new mobile app, you can not only remember the order but pay for it as well.

This is a great step forward for mobile commerce, as New York Times blogger Roy Furchgott writes:

"Some airlines have experimented with using similar barcodes as boarding passes. If the Starbucks test is successful, it may lead to other pay-by-phone services, like gift cards that could be sent directly to the phone, or perhaps phone-based debit cards".

And on that note, J.C. Penney has now joined Starbucks, Domino’s Pizza and other companies in offering mobile coupons. This month, the retailer began a pilot program at 16 stores in Houston allowing customers to redeem mobile discount coupons at the point of sale.

Sounds like a great option for folks like me who always forget my coupons, but never leave home without our phones.

How times have changed. As Telephony Online reports this week, many hospitals are now "wide-open wireless environments, with multiple types of wireless networks co-existing to provide anywhere communications and real-time delivery of medical testing data and telemetry."

Take Methodist Healthcare in San Antonio, where a wireless intranet is going up at six hospitals. As the hospital's CIO told Telephony, "Our doctors and nurses need tools that are wireless.... If a nurse needs to reach a doctor with a question when she is administering some medication and that doctor is walking the halls of the hospital, wireless is the only way to reach him."

With that in mind, one of the most creative apps that I saw was one developed for Sherwin-Williams by the folks at AdMob.  Here's how it works: say you really like the paint color you see at a local restaurant, office, or museum and want to consider using it in your own home.  Simply use your iPhone to take a picture of the color, and the Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap application will give you the code for the paint that you liked (and provide some similar color options).  But it doesn't stop there.  If you enter your zip code, the app shows you the nearest stores where you can purchase your paint of choice!

This application has been a great success for Sherwin-Williams.  According to data provided by AdMob, the campaign ran for two days and received 11.9 million impressions and 129,000 clicks, accounting for a 1.08 click-through rate.  The application's daily downloads went from Number 70 to Number 18 in the App Store during the campaign.

Mobile marketing, when done well, can bring the right mix of satisfying the consumer and helping the organization that put the time, energy, and creativity into the effort.

• Mobile device and chargers
• Enough food and water to last each person three days (one gallon of water per person per day)
• A battery powered, or hand crank radio in addition to a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert (don’t forget extra batteries)
• A flashlight and whistle
• A first aid kit including sterile or latex gloves, dressings, disinfectant towelettes, antibiotic and burn ointment, bandages, eye wash solutions, thermometer, and prescription medications
• Warm blankets, sleeping bags, or other bedding to remain warm.

And don’t forget to include food and water for your pets!