What does the future hold for wireless communications?
That was the topic of the San Diego Venture Group’s panel discussion July 17 at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla. A robust crowd turned out to hear the discussion attended by several venture capitalist groups, including Roth Capital Partners. What listeners learned is that the answer varies widely.
Still, the one message that seemed to hold a consensus among panel members was evolution, not revolution.
“It’s premature to talk about any topics related to 4G. There’s not even a definition for it yet,” said Dado Banatao, managing partner of Tallwood Venture Capital. “We have enough standards. We have enough bandwidth. We need to increase services and the quality of those services while we monetize the infrastructure we already have.”
The panel also addressed the topic of devices and the impact of the iPhone’s remarkable user interface.
Dan Novak, vice president of global marketing at Qualcomm, said that delivering interactivity to handhelds is critical. The effort would be greatly aided, he added, by opening up more technologies, around which developers could create new business applications.
“The business of wireless has a long life in front of it,” Novak said. “It’s going to continue to make for a lot of careers for application developers.”
, Richard Gincel
