The Essential Guide to the Business of U.S. Mobile Wireless

Unlock the value chain in mobile wireless communications through this insightful industry analysis.

• The complete decision-maker's guide to the U.S. wireless industry
• Understand the key technologies in mobile wireless communications
• Discover where the market opportunities and the financial risks are the greatest
• Access to an updated analysis of industry growth, structure, market share, and profitability
• Recognize the key business issues faced by carriers, infrastructure providers, device manufacturers, service providers, and customers
• Learn the major hurdles in moving to new 2.5/3G technologies and offering new retail and business services

This book delivers an up-to-the-minute, non-technical, business-focused analysis of the U.S. mobile wireless communications industry. Written by a leading industry strategist, it explains the underlying technologies with exceptional clarity and simplicity, and offers unmatched insight for non-technical professionals. In making his assessments, John P. Burnham combines sophisticated market analysis with an insider's understanding of the industry's key competitive dynamics. The book offers end-to-end coverage of these issues, and more:

• Voice, data, and paging carriers and their customers
• Infrastructure suppliers
• Device manufacturers including handsets, PDAs, pagers, and beyond
• Mobile Internet, Wireless ISPs (WISPs), Wireless ASPs (WASPs),
• New analyses of growth, market share, profitability, and industry structure for the different segments of the mobile wireless communications industry
• Mobile wireless data and 2.5 & 3G technologies: WAP, SMS, CDPD, i-Mode, GPRS, EDGE, W-CDMA, CDMA2000 and more
• Location technologies, Telmetry, and Telematics
• New revenue generation approaches, business models, and applications

Contents

• Preface
• Introduction

• Physics of Radio Communication 3
• Cellular Spectrum Allocation 4
• PCS Spectrum Allocation 5
• Specialized Mobile Radio Spectrum Allocation 6
• Unlicensed Spectrum 6
• Total Spectrum and Spectrum Caps 7
• Spectrum Auctions and Reauctions 7
• Worldwide 3G Spectrum Bands 13
• European 3G Spectrum Auctions 14

• Types of Mobile Wireless Telephone Service 21
• Digital Transmission Technologies 22
• Circuit-Switched to Packet-Switched Conversion 27
• The Evolving Wireless Transmission Technologies 27
• 3G Technologies 29
• Paging/Data Network Technologies 35

• Terminals 41
• Mobile Wireless Handsets 42
• Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) 58
• Pagers 75
• Wireless Network Infrastructure 80
• Location Technologies 98

• Mobile Wireless Voice 108
• Mobile Wireless Data/Internet 131
• Paging/Data Carriers 157

• Retail Consumers 169
• Business Consumers 174
• Value-Added Service Providers 177
• Telematics 189
• Telemetry 196
• Epilogue 199
• Glossary 201
• References 215
• Index 217
• About the Author 227