Information is flying through cyberspace, instantly connecting people worldwide in a way they’ve never been connected before.

It’s an exciting and challenging time to be in the communications game, particularly when you’re in a fast-paced industry like ICT.

What a difference a decade makes, suggested Intel’s Director for South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Philip Cronin, when he presented to a large AIIA crowd at Adelaide Town Hall on Wednesday 13 September.

Quoting Alan Kay’s famous remarks that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it,” Cronin shared his thoughts on the future possibilities of the PC and the changes that we can expect to enjoy in our everyday lives as a result of ICT.

“Today, there are more mobile phone calls made in one day than in all of 1984, and more emails sent in one minute than in all of 1994,” Cronin told the audience.

“The 90s was the Internet decade. In 1993 there were less than 7 million Internet users. By 2003 there were more than 600 million,” he said.

Pointing to the evolution of wireless Internet technology, Cronin told the audience that while there were 8 million access points deployed and 3 million public hotspot users in 2003, an anticipated 100 million hotspot users and 700 million access points were anticipated by 2013. “This will be the broadband wireless decade,” Cronin prophesised.

So what does broadband wireless Internet bring us?

“Wireless enables the ICT industry to bring broadband to the masses; it opens the door for digital content distribution and the opportunity to impact on the social, community, work and home environment,” Cronin said.

“In the future, a major part of personal communication - be it voice, data, images, or multimedia - will be wireless.

“Many folks in the industry have a vision for what wireless computing will look like in the future. Unfortunately, most of these visions focus on very specific segments of the industry. What the industry needs is a powerful, compelling, collective vision for how all of the aspects of the wireless computing ecosystem fit together.

Cronin envisages high performance devices that can connect to a variety of network types, and can move from network to network without any user intervention.

“You should be able to sync your device with your mail as you leave the WLAN at work, and as soon as you pull into the garage at home, begin immediately interacting with your home network. And in between home and work, you should be able to stop at a coffee shop, have a mocha while you surf the web to find movie listings,” Cronin explained.

There is a lot of work that needs to happen to enable this vision, from enabling the applications, to enabling new devices, to ensuring seamless wireless connectivity. “It will take a collective effort by the industry to deliver this,” Cronin said, adding that Intel is working on several key technologies that enable each of these areas.

Intel’s ‘mobile computing’ vision of the future is one of seamless access to all networks, applications and services anywhere, anytime, Cronin concluded.

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5 October: Sydney - AIIA ICT Corporate Golf Day 2006
11 October: Sydney - AIIA Evening Spotlight Session
13 October: Brisbane - AIIA Luncheon - New Shared Service Agency: what are the implications?
18 October: Melbourne - AIIA's Victorian Government Symposium


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