Time To Cut Back On 3G Hype?

from the they-said-what? dept

One of our biggest complaints is how badly the wireless industry tends to overhype every new wireless technology around. It's the wireless hype cycle. Wireless companies make all sorts of marketing-based claims about how the next wireless technology that's coming along will work at ridiculous speeds in any environment without any interference and the entire world will be wonderfully happy in its own, always-on, always-available, always-fast, always-connected wonderland. Then, reality hits, and people get pissed off because the wireless technology is nice, but not great. Then, of course, comes the backlash, where the wireless technology clearly isn't good enough for anything. The thing is that, no matter how many times this cycle repeats itself, the industry never seems to learn. And, if you talk to anyone about it, the fingers get pointed very quickly. The tech guys blame marketing, the marketing guys blame the press or customers, and the press doesn't see what the problem is. So, it's almost shocking (maybe it's just a bit of reverse psychology) to hear O2 suggest that 3G services are being overhyped, and that the carriers pitching them should quiet down until the technology is really ready for primetime. Of course, the cynical (and the marketing guys for competing carriers) will quickly claim this just means that 02 is way behind in their own deployments.

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