Texans for Economic Progress

Haverlah: Act fast before we run out of wireless capacity

wp_sysadmin — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:52:30 +0000

If you have teenagers or grandchildren who are glued to their phones around the clock, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that the amount of wireless data traffic from Web browsing, streaming videos, tweeting, texting and checking Facebook is skyrocketing.

What you may not know is that all of those wireless texts, tweets and posts travel on invisible radio waves known as “spectrum.”

This spectrum or wireless capacity is a finite resource, meaning we can use it all up.

In fact, the Federal Communications Commission says we are less than a year from running out of wireless capacity.

All About CLOUD

wp_sysadmin — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:59:42 +0000

All About CLOUD	May 3, 2012

A few years ago, if you spoke to anyone about the “cloud” they would almost automatically assume you were referring to puffy white masses in the sky. Today, there is a different reality. Thanks to early innovators like Amazon, cloud computing has moved beyond an ethereal concept into a commonly accepted technology infrastructure that delivers speed, simplicity and security.

Anyone who has ever used YouTube, Facebook or Twitter has accessed data stored in the cloud. When you use these crowd favorites, you rarely save anything to your desktop or to disk, because the information you upload and download lives ‘in the cloud’, and this massive amount of information is delivered to you over the Internet.

The phenomenon of cloud computing exists because of a collaboration between developers and networks. Developers can build and launch their applications faster than ever and manage them more efficiently in the cloud, which is critical to meet the ever-growing demand of consumers who are ushering in an app-based reality.

On the developer side, opportunity abounds. Service-firms like Texas-based Cosential providea Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool to their customers, which include some of the nation’s largest construction, architectural and engineering firms. They were the first and remain the only provider to rely solely on the cloud.

Cosential CEO Dan Cornish states, “We knew early on that the cloud provided the security that our clients demanded. Now we are able to offer a full suite of sales and marketing tools online and on mobile devices anywhere, anytime. It sets us apart.”

App developers and businesses like Cosential depend not only on the evolution of the cloud but also on the wireless infrastructure that powers it. But, as more and more companies depend on the cloud for mission-critical processes, the availability of the wireless spectrum that powers the cloud becomes an issue. Without adequate spectrum, which is finite and controlled by the government, networks become constrained.

Federal policy makers should foster and advance policies and initiatives that free up spectrum and spur investment. Additionally, we must urge them not to enact unnecessary regulations that hinder this investment. If government gets this right, carriers will be able to continue to invest in these high speed networks, the cloud will continue to bring benefits to consumers, and innovation will flourish.

Chelsea McCullough
Executive Director
Texans for Economic Progress

News from TEP ED Chelsea McCullough

YOUR SMART LIFE DIGEST
Web-enabled technology is about to make your life a lot easier. Our homes, cars and everyday realities will be completely digitally integrated and accessed via wireless device. Welcome to your Smart Life.

Feature: Home Security. Monitoring the safety of your home and possessions is automatic through your wireless phone or tablet. View camera footage in real time, check secure entry points or simply test your alarm system. It’s peace of mind 24/7 wherever you are.

Texas Company Profile: Monitronics International, headquartered in Dallas, provides wirelessly monitored security systems for more than 800,000 residential and commercial customers across the U.S. and is one of the three largest alarm-monitoring companies in the country.

TEP Executive Director Chelsea McCullough Gets Her Groove On at SXSW Music Fest

wp_sysadmin — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:43:48 +0000

TEP Executive Director Chelsea McCullough Gets Her Groove On at SXSW Music Fest	March, 22,2012

SXSW: Digital Music Is In “The Cloud”

Musicians from all over the world were in Austin last week for SXSW. Bruce Springsteen and REM were the highlight performers, proving how SX has come a long way from its roots as a local showcase for emerging bands. The reoccurring conversation this year is how fast the music industry is changing, mostly due to technology.

To get some perspective on what this means, consider this… SXSW launched in 1987 with 700 attendees. In that same year, the recordable CD was invented. Today, SXSW draws 32,000 people (infusing $167 million into the Austin economy) and music consumption is now almost all digital.

Photo Credit Brian Birzer, austin360.com

Even iTunes is quickly becoming a relic now that cloud-based music streaming platforms like Spotify and iTunes Match are on the market. These services allow users to access their music libraries on cloud-based servers which means instant access to unlimited tracks from anywhere in the world via web or mobile device.

According to GigaOm, there is an undeniable and inevitable shift “from analog media business models to the age of digital consumption.” The impact is substantial not only for consumers and the industry as a whole but also related to the massive bandwidth consumption required to deliver seamless service.

Spotify founders Daniel Ek and Martin
Lorentzon. Courtesy of Spotify.

In fact, on 2010 SXSW panel, the founder of Spotify stated that on certain days, “the service uses more bandwidth than the entire country of Sweden.” While that is certainly an impressive number, it is also shocking especially taking into account that this was two years ago and before their U.S. launch.

“Like video streaming, cloud-based music services will gain in popularity. We will want instant, uninterrupted access on all of our digital devices and we will want more and more of it,” said Robert Howden, chairman of TEP. “The challenge is that spectrum – the radio frequency that carries all this wireless traffic – is finite. There’s a very real possibility that we can run out of capacity, creating more dropped calls and spotty connections. This isn’t just a problem for people with the latest generation tablets on the fastest networks. Running out of spectrum is a problem for anyone with wireless service.”

“Running out of spectrum – the radio frequency that carries wireless traffic – isn’t just a problem for people with the latest generation tablets on the fastest wireless networks. The spectrum crunch is a problem for anyone with wireless service.” – TEP Chairman Robert Howden

In a recent article, Steve Forbes refers to this as “the spectrum crunch” and forecasts that demand is slated to outpace supply in only two short years. In other words, to enjoy cloud based music services, we need a solution to deliver the required bandwidth. This will require swift action on behalf of the FCC to allow greater access for wireless data providers as consumers demand faster, more robust networks.

SXSW is all about innovation. The buzz at the 2012 festival was all about connecting fans to music. It’s entirely possible that the conversation at SXSW 2013 will be about how to ensure that we have enough bandwidth or spectrum to maintain the digital music experience. That is, if we haven’t depleted our wireless bandwidth by then.

Chelsea McCullough
Executive Director
Texans for Economic Progress

News from TEP ED Chelsea McCullough

Tech Crunch talks Apps making their marks in the music world:

Rap Genius: Two percent of all Google searchers are for song lyrics. Rap Genius uses crowd-sourcing to tell the stories behind song lyrics and is also branching out to other genres with Stereo IQ.

Monstro: Who were the most talked about acts at SXSW? Monstro compiles the top tweets by artist, day, genre and more. Turns out dubstep artist, Skrillex, was the hottest commodity.

Traditional Meets Digital: Billboard, the world’s premier music publication, embraces data from the Facebook music profile app BandPage as well as from streaming services like Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio, MOG, Slacker, and Cricket.

On the Ground at SXSWi with TEP Executive Director Chelsea McCullough

wp_sysadmin — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:00:38 +0000

On the Ground at SXSWi with TEP Executive Director Chelsea McCullough	March, 20,2012

It’s all about Apps and Texas developers represented!

Dennis Crowley, founder of foursquare, and MG Siegler, general partner at Crunch Fund, came together at SXSWi to talk about the future of location-based mobile applications. Launched at SX in 2009, foursquare fast built a loyal following, signing up 75,000 new users during the 2010 interactive conference and today boasting more than 15 million users at last count.

Last week 4,500 SX attendees unlocked the foursquare “virgin” badge, a special check-in for SXSW newcomers. Additionally, early reports from this year’s conference show another record-breaking attendance count at 24,569 paid registrants, up 27 percent from last year.

And, it’s all about the Apps. They are the new reality, driving job creation, private investment and creating an ever-increasing demand for spectrum, the lifeblood of wireless networks.

In 2011, U.S. users spent more time with mobile apps to open browsers than Web-based services. Recent surveys confirm this and indicate that smartphone users prefer apps to browsers to connect to the world around them.

Juniper research states, “People want to find out not only what their friends are doing, but also their location and other available activities in the area. Geosocial networks are particularly suited to the mobile space as most smartphones now include GPS, and have an ‘always on, always connected’ experience.”

Top apps will be the ones that instantly solve a problem in real time such as learning about what and who is near and increasing the relevance of this information. Mobile devices are quickly becoming personal discovery engines.

Many of the apps featured at SXSWi originate out of Silicon Valley like Glomper and Glancee, both of which help users find and connect to people and events. Or Uber, which allows you to request a private car with your mobile, or Pikhub, which creates social photo albums, or GroupMe, which makes it easy to send and receive texts to groups.

But, Texas is giving Silicon Valley a serious challenge, here are are few of the homegrown, Lone Star apps we’re watching:

Scene Tap provides information about the crowds at specific venues. The mobile app uses anonymous facial detection to show how many people are there, the male-to-female ratio and average age statistics. There is also a deals feature with venue-specific coupons.

Flash Valet

Flash Valet improves the valet parking experience with a mobile app that alerts users when their car is ready. This ultra convenient feature allows users to request their car without leaving the venue and allows you to pay and tip, all from a handheld device. The company that began in Austin is in pilot in bars, restaurants, hotels and hospitals around the country.

Go Texan

GoTexan promotes Texas products and allows users to search and share restaurants, wineries, farmers markets, florists, nurseries, retailers and more. The app also provides access to Texas recipes, events, coupons, etc. This is a good app to keep handy as BBQ was a top topic at SX and accounted for 90% of the social conversations around food.

Intuitive Health

Intuitive Health is a cloud-based service out of Dallas that touts itself to be the “tipping point in eHealth” designed to reduce healthcare costs and increase patient-centered coordination including remote patient monitoring. Healthcare providers can push content, respond to care plans, collect vitals and even video conference with patients.

As usage of mobile apps and smart phone adoption expands, so to will the demand for spectrum, the unseen infrastructure that makes wireless connectivity and our app-driven world possible.

What’s needed is more spectrum and that will require smart policy that ensures competitive allocation to this vital mobile commodity. With enough spectrum, SX and the Texas tech and apps sectors can keep driving innovation, investment and job creation forward.

Chelsea McCullough
Executive Director
Texans for Economic Progress

News from TEP Chairman Robert Howden

#OpenGovSXSW reached all the way into the State Capitol with an open government panel featuring some innovative work and a new Android-powered app for the Senate Business and Commerce Committee chaired by Sen. John Carona. Sen. Carona charged his committee and staff to “push the envelope so hard it’s no longer stationery,” and is working to level the playing field between lobbyists, advocates and the general public. Sen. Carona’s committee leveraged Twitter and Blog posts to engage and empower Texans last session, and the new app is sure to up the ante for other members and committees around the Pink Dome next session.

SXSW Interactive – What We Learned

wp_sysadmin — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:02:30 +0000

A note from TEP Chairman Robert Howden

As the high-tech world continues to morph at warp speed, TEP is working hard to peer over the cutting-edge to see what’s next. With that goal in mind, I’m thrilled to announce our new Executive Director Chelsea McCullough, who hit the ground running at this year’s SXSW Interactive Festival. Check it out…

It’s all about connection

SXSWi exploded in 2012. The number of panels, participants and impact doubled in one short year. On the ground, it seems more like a carnival than a technology conference. What was once a niche event for geeks is now a “must attend” spectacle for anyone who is anyone in innovation. Here are some take-aways:

We all want more. The key commodity is power and connection. Attendees are glued to their mobile devices to post, tweet, text, check-in and check-out what’s happening around Austin. Crowds are crouched around outlets hungry for bandwidth and battery charge. It’s a new meaning to the term, “plugged in.”

“The formula to bring all of this fantastic potential to fruition is smart public policy that encourages investment and access to more spectrum, which is the lifeblood of all things wireless,” Chelsea McCullough, TEP Executive Director

Sharing is visual. To tag or not to tag… there is no question. Communication through video and pictures is faster, more fun and the SXSWi norm. Everyone is snapping with a smart phone and creating instant content. This is true not just at SX but across all media including one of America’s most traditional print-based publications, LIFE. SXSWi attendee Bill Shapiro, Development Editor of TimeInc.com only sees the trend increasing. “Just like any business, magazines have got to evolve and go with the times.” The impact on bandwidth is substantial. (see previous comments.)

Location-based apps are hot. Austin is all about the success of the start-up. Everyone is talking about geosocial location applications like Highlight which provides a mobile alert when someone in your extended network is near. In other words, it makes it easier to become friends with the friends of your friends. Some find it useful for making new connections and others find it intrusive and creepy. One thing is certain is that this new blurred line creates a new conversation around online/mobile privacy, something relevant to innovators and policy makers alike. (Photo credit: mashable.com)

Everyone is included. The crowd is diverse and reflective of the global economy. There is an emerging presence of Latinos in technology with The Social Revolucion sponsored by Univision that features how Hispanics are connecting in new ways.

Quotes to remember: “Man, my mobile is suckin’ it down.” Humorous words from Shawn Gurczak, Sr. Art Director at Tribal DDB

Howden: An ‘app economy’ born out of thin air and the iPhone

wp_sysadmin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:11:51 +0000

In a new piece on the Statesman.com, Robert Howden, Chairman of TEP, takes a look at the surging ‘App Economy’ that has arisen since the launch of the iPhone in 2007.

Howden cites a TechNet study that found “nearly 1 million apps have been created to date, and it is estimated that these apps generated nearly $20 billion in revenue in 2011 alone.” And it is not just New York City and Silicon Valley that are benefiting from this new economy.

There are several successful app developers based right here in Texas. Among them are DocBookMD, an application for iPhone, iPad and Android using doctors to share important information more. Also Tabbedout, that lets iPhone and Android users open and close a tab when they are out at the bar. And a third is GetYa Learn On, which uses apps to make engaging education products to help keep students motivated.

To learn more about the app economy and how Texas is playing a leading roll in this innovative field, read the full piece on the Statesman.com.

Congress Gets It on Wireless Broadband

Robert Howden — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 03:54:33 +0000

By Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association

February 22, 2012, 2:54 p.m. EST

It seems that Congress is always fighting partisan battles, but when they agree to do something significant without partisan rancor, it is not big news. Take last week.

A little-noticed silver lining in last week’s extension of the payroll tax cut opened the door to build a 21st Century wireless broadband network. As part of the compromise to pay for unemployment benefits, Congress included language authorizing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to hold voluntary incentive spectrum auctions.

If you’re unsure what this means for our wireless network, first a little background. Our mobile devices – tablets, smartphones, e-readers, etc. – connect to the Internet on wireless spectrum allocated by the federal government. A large portion of available wireless spectrum is now allocated to broadcast stations that transmit “over-the-air” television to those TV sets with rabbit ears. Decades ago, the government gave broadcasters, for free, a huge amount of spectrum to reach 100 percent of American households with television and radio programming. They were the only ones using this spectrum, but times have changed dramatically since cell phones were introduced and the overwhelming majority of Americans switched to pay-TV service. With the decline of broadcast TV – fewer than 10 percent of households rely on “rabbit ears” or other antennae –broadcast TV spectrum today is vastly underused.

The problem? You can’t create more spectrum; it’s a finite resource. Which means that while our wireless broadband demand grows each year, the supply does not. Every dropped call or “service unavailable” message is a result of our wireless broadband deficit. One solution CEA has long advocated is the voluntary “repurposing” of underused broadcast spectrum – permit TV stations to turn in to the FCC spectrum they aren’t using, in exchange for a share of the proceeds of an auction of such spectrum to wireless broadband providers. But the FCC has been prohibited from holding voluntary auctions unless authorized by Congress.

Some Wireless Carriers’ Decisions Threaten Rural Broadband Access

Robert Howden — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:28:06 +0000

Roam on the Range: When Washington’s Moves Hit Rural Communities

By Robert Howden

It’s easy to forget sometimes that what happens thousands of miles away in Washington, DC, can and does impact the states and our rural communities.

An unfortunate and unexpected outcome of Washington policy surfaced in rural America this month when some wireless carriers announced they would move rural customers to roam for coverage on other carriers’ networks instead of maintaining or building out their own wireless network.

With all the progress and promise of the National Broadband Plan in helping connect rural America with high-speed Internet and communications services, it would be a shame to see Washington and a Federal Communications Commission policy put rural communities on the back burner.

At issue is something called the Home Market Rule, some good public policy that said if a wireless carrier owned spectrum — the lifeblood of wireless communications and broadband connectivity — those carriers should build out the networks necessary to utilize that spectrum. Doing so would ensure more Texans and Americans could access faster servicer without having to “roam” on other carrier’s networks or lose coverage completely.

While regulators in Washington considered eliminating the Home Market Rule a way to spur investment and network development, it appears the outcome quite the opposite.

Now, as some carriers look to take advantage of the FCC rule change, it raises real concerns about rural access and connectivity.

It now appears that the policy shift from the FCC gives wireless companies an opportunity to step away from rural markets and force rural residents to literally and figuratively “roam on the range” of other providers’ networks for their wireless and broadband service.

Given the goals of the National Broadband Plan, smart policy would look to encourage investment and deployment of broadband networks, not the reverse. The National Broadband Plan holds great promise for job creation and private investment, but those goals could be at risk if wireless carriers proceed with stepping back from rural investment.

Roam on the Range: To Learn More

THE DAILY CALLER (Jan. 25, 2012)
Sprint rural data roaming decision signals confirmation to conservatives critical of FCC data roaming rule

http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/25/sprint-rural-data-roaming-decision-signals-confirmation-to-conservatives-critical-of-fcc-data-roaming-rule/

Maximum Entropy (Jan. 26, 2012)
Roam, roam on the range. Will Washington’s new intrusions discourage wireless expansion?

http://www.bretswanson.com/index.php/2012/01/roam-roam-on-the-range-will-washingtons-new-intrusions-discourage-wireless-expansion/

NDN Study Estimates the Economic and Employment Gains From Investments in Next-Generation Wireless Broadband Infrastructure

Robert Howden — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:15:43 +0000

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A new economic study released today by NDN finds that the adoption and use of successive generations of cell phones supported by the transition from 2G to 3G wireless networks led to the creation of 1,585,000 new jobs in the U.S. between April 2007 and June 2011. The study also estimates that a rapid transition from 3G to 4G mobile broadband networks could create more than 231,000 additional jobs within a year.

The study, “The Employment Effects of Advances in Internet and Wireless Infrastructure: Evaluating the Transitions from 2G to 3G and from 3G to 4G,” was co-authored by economists Robert J. Shapiro, chairman of the Globalization Initiative at NDN and former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs, and Kevin A. Hassett, senior fellow and director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. In the paper, the authors quantify the large economic benefits – from employment to innovation – associated with the deployment of and investment in more advanced wireless infrastructure and associated mobile devices, tracking the impact of the transitions from 2G to 3G and from 3G to 4G network technologies.

It Was the Year of the Mobile

Robert Howden — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:15:56 +0000

Before we ring in the New Year, the Mobile Future team took a look back at some of the year’s exciting developments and ground-breaking wireless innovations. Our new video, the Mobile Year in Review 2011, and accompanying paper highlight many of the key consumer and mobile tech trends and explore what’s driving the dynamic mobile sector.

Watch the video here.