As we all know, the carriers have been walking through the Telecom desert and wondering when the endless sand and heat would end and whether they would be able to make it out of the desert. After passing a few disappointing recovery mirages, the carriers are standing in the water still wondering if it is a mirage. They are slowing beginning to convince themselves that it is, in fact, not a mirage. Lest they be caught up in the thrill of finding water again, they are treading slowly, but still beginning to be caught up in the thrill of finding water again. It is water!!! ... It is real!!! ... We may be out of the desert!!!

In the meantime, carriers have been adding subscribers with multiple service plans and mega-minute plans, but have been downsizing and have not been adding expanding or adding capacity to their coverage in order to make their profits look more attractive to Wall Street. Also, Wireless Local Number Portability (WLNP) came into force and over the past year, the carriers have been locking in subscribers to multi-year plans. In the midst of all this, photo/video-phones have burst onto the scene and are causing a lot of interest in data and applications. With success from the price & package wars for additional subscribers, the carrier networks are in need of expansion, which is why we are seeing major carriers announcing major planned expansions. For a major part of this expansion, carriers are looking at 3G and Packet networks to provide the needed capacity and features required.

Since technology always marches on, Wireless Broadband Access has migrated a few generations of technology and WiFi (802.11a/b/g) is broadly deployed. The next generation of this WiMAX (802.16) is becoming more interesting for both deploying data and, more importantly (to us), voice. 802.16e addendum provides the needed QoS to offer voice over WiMAX, so the operators are looking to use this for wide-spread deployment of Voice over WiMAX. I should note that while WiFi provides localized coverage or "hot spots", WiMAX has been developed for wide coverage (almost like cellular coverage to cover whole metropolitan areas). WiMAX is also offered in unlicensed bands and carriers are looking to possibly use WiMAX for backhaul of WiFi hot spots, cell site IP backhaul and other transmission uses (similar to what microwave was used for). WiMAX vendors are also looking to embed VoIP into their CPE boxes – so talk to these guys (I have a list of some of the potential vendors if interested or just do a google search on WiMAX / 802.16).

So, it is an exciting time in wireless these days – enjoy the water (it's not a mirage).