If Ericsson Canada’s vision is to be believed, in the not-too-distant future wireless users will regularly watch TV on their handsets while text messaging family or friends watching the same programs at home thanks to upcoming mobile broadband capabilities.
These capabilities, which could boost speeds to mobile devices up to 144 Mbps by 2010, will allow telecoms to make money by offering services providers are only beginning to imagine.
“We are creating a garden that will allow new fruits and flowers to expand in our industry and create a new ecosystem of lifestyle changing opportunities,” Dragan Nerandzic, the manufacturer’s chief technology officer, grandly told reporters and industry analysts in Toronto earlier this month.
Mark Henderson, president and CEO of Ericsson Canada, was a bit lower key in an interview. “If you [a provider] have that kind of capacity in the network then you can imagine saying, ‘Yes, I can switch 25 live television channels, yes, I can do interactive gaming at high speeds with hundreds of players.’”
The two executives were in Toronto to replay a presentation Ericsson made at this year’s 3GSM conference in Barcelona on its upcoming broadband wireless technology to officials from Rogers Communications and Telus. But one analyst at the briefing is skeptical Canadians will embrace this vision soon.
“It’s good for the U.S. and Europe, but not so much in Canada,” said Amit Kaminer of the SeaBoard Group. “These appli
