John J. Roese, the CTO of Canadian-based Nortel, oversees 12,000 scientists, engineers and designers. Here’s an interview with Forbes magazine:
Forbes: There’s been a lot of news about WiMAX and LTE. Is 4G coming faster than most think?
Roese: At the beginning of 2007 and the end of 2006, we said 4G would happen faster than the industry expected. Now we have two elements pushing things forward: LTE and WiMAX. WiMAX is definitely the proving grounds for 4G. Verizon has announced it’s going after LTE in 2008 to 2010. Most of the industry was saying by 2010, best case scenario.
That announcement is good for the industry and for consumers. Now we hear about Android, Verizon opening its network, AT&T saying they’re open. Look at something like Kindle, which operates on a cellular network. That is exactly what we were talking about–the cost of the network buried in a subscription for content. A year ago, no media players were attached directly to the communications infrastructure. Today the iPod touch and iPhone are in that space, as well as Kindle. These are devices that are hiding the complexity of the network and focusing on the user experience.
In ‘08, you will find gaming systems and other consumer electronics getting connected. We’ll see laptops with embedded 4G technology and not just for business customers. We have had no success with telematics for the last 20 years, but now you can envision a system in your car that downloads content to a calendar, updates information automatically and is always attached to the Internet. Right now, you can get Wi-Fi at best with a camera. Just think if, instead of capturing images on a memory card, you could utilize 4G to upload them to a Webpage before you get back to the office.
The idea of a device that’s dependent on a single network is becoming old-school. The next wave is “hyperconnectivity,” which means connecting everything that could provide value, whether it’s a gaming system, automobile, refrigerator or sprinkler system . . .
.gif)
