A Wireless Week article contains some interesting tidbits for the coming new year.  Among them:

"Viral Applications: Peer-to-peer sharing, mobile communities, social networking, user-generated content, super distribution. Carriers that figure out how to connect these dots will gain the keys to the data kingdom."

What made this item noteworthy?  Connected World described “Wi-Fi Goes Viral” on page 23 of the report as an example of the potential power of Wi-Fi as hotspots federate worldwide.

Another Wireless Week prediction highlighted the waning of MVNO startups (Mobile Virtual Network Operator—a reseller of wireless services).  Mobile ESPN was cited as an example and was covered earlier in this blog (see post on 9/29/06).

Sprint Nextel is putting out a service called Sprint Wireless Integration.  It offers users a single phone number that simultaneously rings an office and mobile phone.  Additionally, it offers a single voice mail solution while providing desk capabilities to the mobile phone.

Part of the capabilities for this offering come from Sprint’s investment in IP Multimedia Subystem (IMS), which Connected World covers on p. 32. For more on Sprint’s new offering, which extends the boundaries of the office and leverages worker mobility, see article.

The TV networks are working in an uncharacteristic collaboration to create a video distribution site to take on YouTube.  The networks, aghast that they are garnering no revenue from YouTube, which has infiltrated their space as essentially a new type of network, are intent on creating their own offering and a new revenue source – especially now that YouTube has been fortified by its purchase by Google.  Stay tuned…and read the full story.

During the Tour de France this year, csc.com used Google Earth to provide a terrific birds-eye view of the tour route. The next logical step, short of being there, is seeing where the cyclists are at any given moment.  The best technology to meet this challenge is GPS.  However, without good wireless coverage, how can the GPS data be reported back at any given moment?  Enter new converged devices such as a GPS-cellular device from WorldTrack.  This tiny device lets you track, in real time, the location of whomever or whatever is carrying the device.  The device uses the GSM cellular network to transmit the location data; as in the movie ET, this device “phones home.” WorldTrack has also created a service that superimposes the location data on Google Earth.

However, a number of questions come to mind.  Will cyclists (or rules) allow such a device to be attached to the bike?  Or, in a less intrusive approach, can the device be used in the pace car to track the overall race rather than individuals?  Certainly, seeing where individual racers are would be more meaningful than only seeing where the leader is or having an aerial view of the route.  Broadly speaking, sponsors like CSC must ask how they can use technology to serve the spectator in a way that creates a win-win for all parties involved: spectators, cyclists and sponsors.  There is a real opportunity to meet various parties’ interests during the down time of such a spread-out and popular sporting event.

A reporter tries T-Mobile’s new Wi-Fi/cellular service, being offered just in the Seattle-Tacoma area for now.  He gives a mixed review of the dual-mode service we have covered in the blog (11/30, 11/3, 10/4 and 9/28) and Connected World (p. 31-33).  Dual mode makes sense to achieve blanket coverage, but the kinks are still being worked out.  See article.