Informant38

The relentless pace of development is removing such limitations. New-generation networks and vastly improved phone handsets -- some of which were on display here last week at a major telecommunications conference -- are creating a new kind of medium.

Yet at the International Telecommunications Union's Telecom Asia 2002 conference and exhibition, I heard relatively few people talking about what customers could do for themselves with this gear. Ditto at a conference here in mid-November on next-generation mobile services.

Oh, there was some discussion about how forward-looking companies will find ways to use these kinds of technologies, just as they found value in desk-bound PCs, laptops and networks. Once a competitive advantage is obvious, others will race to copy it.

But what about you and me, the people way out at the edge of these emerging networks? As far as we're concerned, the telecom companies and their corporate partners seem to view tomorrow's multimedia mobile world as a 21st century vehicle for content delivery, much like television, or an e-commerce tool