Welcome back and Happy New Year! I spent some time in the last few weeks of 2009 reflecting on the changes in our industry, and thinking about the new technologies on the horizon for 2010.

One of the industry changes that Sparkplug began to seriously exploit last year was the availability of 3.65 GHz spectrum. This spectrum is “lightly regulated,” meaning that an operator must apply for a license to operate, but the fees are minimal and the use of the space is governed by the operators themselves. 3.65GHz spectrum is 50MHz wide and is segmented into the upper 25MHz and the lower 25MHz. Carriers can only operate in the lower 25MHz unless they operate the FCC’s contention based protocol. Recently one of the 3.65GHz equipment manufacturers announced the release of a contention based 3.65GHz product. With such a capability a carrier can operate legally in the full 5oMHz of 3.65GHz spectrum. We will be working with our suppliers to urge them to offer this capability sooner.

Looking back, one of our biggest challenges to taking advantage of the 3.65 band is simply not enough “width” to that spectrum. It is so small, it is virtually impossible for the network operators to coordinate among themselves. One of the key drivers for Sparkplug’s interest in 3.65GHz was WiMAX. WiMAX and comparable technologies are now available in the 5.XGHz band.

Let me give you an example of the challenge regarding the bandwidth: we have 25 megahertz to play with in the 3.65 GHz band – if every operator is offering services on 5 megahertz channels, then there are only five channels available. It gets worse when you have providers offering 10 megahertz channels, which is not uncommon.

There was a lot of talk in 2009 about 4G, but I really see this as more of a mobility play. Meaning that the benefits of 4G – and the investment required – will be driven by the mobile wireless operators. At Sparkplug, we are going to be much more focused on WiMax in 2010. Frankly, it’s a more mature protocol and one that is supported today by the hardware manufacturers. For us, a new technology only becomes a viable option once the hardware ships.

Moving forward, we are looking to WiMax for the QoS required to support real-time applications like Voice on our wireless networks. In the fixed wireless world, we have been almost entirely focused on data transport and the incorporation of WiMax into our networks on a wider scale, will allow us to increase our focus on voice.

And from a purely commercial standpoint, the QoS embedded in WiMax will allow us to take advantage of unlicensed spectrum options for WiMax applications that offer more capacity like 5.x – which offers greater bandwidth.

Now that we have the technology capability via WiMax to deliver real-time applications, and take advantage of more spectrum at a reasonable cost, 2010 just may be the year where our goal of displacing the “wire” into the Enterprise becomes a reality.