Written by: Stig Rune Johansson
It is a well-known fact that it takes far less time to develop new devices and systems than it takes for the masses to adopt them and benefit from them in their daily lives. Indeed, in some cases, an entire generation must pass before a technology is “discovered” or accepted. Even so, as technicians, it is our job to strive for innovation and improvement. Our work in the telecommunications industry, in particular, benefits mankind. We are helping people to satisfy their need to communicate—a meaningful objective, if there ever was one! Notwithstanding, the industry is currently striving toward targets that were set when the industry was still in its infancy. In light of the growth and changes that have occurred, I contend that we should reconsider the path we are on:
• The work carried out during the past 20-plus years has brought us to new crossroads, where today’s reasonably stable communication systems with several parallel services (fixed telephony, mobile telephony, data communication, TV, and so on) are converging to form systems that support multiple services. What is more, the infusion of Internet technology is having a revolutionizing effect on our industry.
• Similarly, during the past decade, the penetration in several countries of mobile telephony has grown from a few percent to more than fifty percent. This means that the results of our work no longer affect only a small fraction of the population, but have a direct impact on a wide customer base.
I wonder, have we really taken this situation into account? In our ongoing efforts to develop and perfect new systems and services, we must not forget to touch base with those persons who will eventually benefit from our work. For the majority of end-users, the key issue is services—those that are simple and efficient to use. Why then, are so many of the services available today so complicated to use?
I would urge the industry to include and aim for new targets, shifting the focus of our research and development to “less traditional” areas. I am confident that if we can succeed in meeting people’s demands, our new communication systems will play an even more important role than they have done to date. Consider, for example, what happens when a service is packaged appropriately—take i-Mode (the mobile Internet service in Japan) or SMS. Certainly, user-friendly services like these should be our ultimate aim.
Ericsson Review gives us a forum for describing technical advancements and solutions. Certainly, we need this forum, but I would hope that we do not become so enamored with the technology itself that we lose sight of the real objective, which is to produce and support communications services that people want and need. In this edition of Ericsson Review, you can read about technology that has the potential to help fulfill our objective. For instance, one article presents results from tests carried out in the live WCDMA network in Stockholm. Another article describes some important aspects of the next generation of systems, which might be based on ad hoc networking. Another set of articles takes a look at some important components in the new network architecture, which supports multimedia services. And, happily, this issue also features an article that emphasizes providing user-friendly applications and content—Ericsson’s WebOnAir Information Server solution.
[First published in Ericsson Review no. 04, 2000]
