What’s Next for U.S. Wireless Broadband?

Wireless broadband technology is evolving rapidly, presenting significant growth opportunities over the next few years. The FCC recently announced plans to bring broadband to 100 million American homes by 2020, with mobile broadband playing an integral role. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act have awarded over $7.2 billion to broadband projects.

While broadband will be available across the US soon, other countries already have nationwide coverage with plans to upgrade from 1-10 Mega-bits per second (Mbps) to lightning-fast 100 Mbps services within five years. What are the benefits, challenges, and opportunities presented by these changes?

Our panelists include representatives from service providers, application developers, and sources of capital. They will share their experience and offer their views on the future of wireless broadband and how it may impact today`s business models. Among the issues we will discuss:

Market potential: Some of the first rural broadband wireless networks will spring up as early as this year.

Technological obstacles and trends: WiMAX, 3G, and 4G LTE each present different technical challenges – and there are demand-side obstacles, such as fewer household computers in rural areas.

Emerging opportunities and VC investment: Some startups are already receiving significant funding – for example, LightSquared has raised $850MM for a satellite-based 4G LTE network.

Government policies, funding, and regulation: Today, the FCC has assigned only 50 megahertz for broadband use; industry players have already warned that this could limit U.S. innovation and technology development.

Long-term impact: Some industry commentators have predicted a “mobile nirvana,” with even greater demand for mobile apps, more widespread use of social networking, and an increase in mobile advertising.

Panel Moderator:
- David Goodman, Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NYU

Panel Speakers:
- Sandeep Beotra, Managing Director, Morgan Joseph
- Frank Boulben, Chief Marketing Officer, LightSquared
- Dana Spiegel, Executive Director of NYCwireless, VP of Product and Engineering at AxialMarket
- Bart Stuck, Managing Director, Signal Lake Venture Capital
- Jagjit Toor, Director of Access Networks, Alcatel-Lucent
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DATE: Thursday, May 26th, 2011
TIME: 5:30pm – 6:00pm: Reception
6:00pm – 7:30pm: Panel Discussion
7:30pm – 8:30pm: Networking
PLACE: Holland & Knight
31 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019

REGISTRATION: Free to members of MIT Enterprise Forum
$50 non-members, $10 extra at door. Rolling annual membership – join for $100.