Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Why the World Went Wired

If you're a global thinker or a world traveler, you have already taken objection to the title. Just like our World Series of baseball, the World Champions of the Superbowl, and all our other national titles that we over-inflate as world titles, the same is true for this title. The world didn't go wired. America did. In fact, other parts of the world totally skipped the wired revolution. So, why then did America go wired?

In parts of the world where the communication boom came post-wireless revolution, nobody even thought to go through the trouble of laying cable or fiber. Why even waste the time. Just build transmitters and antennas. But in the U.S., arguably the more advanced and faster-growing technology markets on the planet, we exist today in a state of dependency on wired local connections.

Local connections -- key point here, we all know that wires support wireless. But what I'm calling into question is our dependence on wires for local loop. From the hub to the handheld. From dbox to d-link router. Why?

My theory: it started with consumer, not business, demand. Namely, telephone and television. In the 60's and 70's, as such luxuries were becoming more necessity than nicety, the efficiencies of airwaves was still quite low. Digital broadcast was only developed in the last decade and mandated just last year. Analog signal on the spectrum simply couldn't deliver the hundreds of channels and multiple phone lines that we were all demanding.

The result: by the 80's copper cable traversed most of the developed areas. As cellular and other wireless technology matured in the 90's there existed a sense in which the cable was there, why not use it. Aside from that, 3G and 4G speeds still hadn't arrived yet and wires still severely out-performed wireless.

So, why this history lesson now? Why think about it today? Two reasons: (1) wireless is catching up, and (2) wires aren't everywhere that people are anymore.

Development has out-paced the grid. Neighborhoods pop up in corn fields every day, and with neighborhoods come stores. More and more, new development (both commercial and residential) is realizing the costs to keep the grid up with the demand.

Meanwhile, the alternative local loop, wireless signal, is catching up. The wireless "pipe" is getting bigger through optimization of signal (i.e. digital) and the release of more spectrum (a la FCC auctions).

Will TV antennas once again be a regular scene on the rooftops? Will T-Com super-giants like Time Warner Cable change with the times and begin delivering on the air once again? Or, will we (unlike the rest of the world) keep up the illusion that every terminal, house, c-store, and business needs to be tethered with copper strands no matter the cost?

Labels: 3G, 4G, Broadband, Cell Towers, FCC, Time Warner, Wireless