Mobile TV, WiMAX and mobile advertising will top the agenda at next week's CTIA Wireless trade show, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.
Informa says the event, which runs March 26th-29th in Orlando, will see a continuation of the mobile industry’s 'frenzied' efforts to reinvent itself as an entertainment business.
Tammy Parker, principal analyst with Informa Telecoms & Media, said: "Verizon Wireless' recent introduction of its VCAST Mobile TV service, using Qualcomm's MediaFLO USA network, in 20 US markets marks the beginning of the age of standalone mobile TV networks that provide multimedia content which the cellular networks are ill-suited to deliver. With Aloha Partners and Modeo currently working on DVB-H networks in the US as well, mobile TV will be a dominant theme at this year's CTIA event."
Meanwhile, Informa forecasts that the mobile advertising market will be worth $11.3 billion by 2011. Principal analyst Nick Lane added: "The sooner the mobile industry understands this emerging business model and its role within the advertising ecosystem, the sooner it can tap into that additional revenue stream."
As for WiMAX, Craig McCaw's Clearwire has just completed its initial public offering, raising funds for a mobile WiMAX network build-out, and Sprint Nextel is progressing on plans to test the technology in Chicago and Baltimore/Washington D.C. later this year.
Mobile Entertainment magazine is an offcial CTIA Wireless media partner and will be reporting from the show all next week.
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