WISPAPALOZZA 2013-2014: IOTComplete.com Delivers Key Sessions
By IOTComplete.com‘s Jimmy Schaeffler
(October 17, 2014: Las Vegas, CA)
A Key 2014 Panel
A year ago last month, IOTComplete.com had its introduction to the annual conference held in Las Vegas by 1,100 or so of the nation’s best wireless (and other) internet service providers, known as WISPAPALOOZA. That was in the form of an October 16, 2013, luncheon keynote address delivered by IoTComplete‘s Jimmy Schaeffler, titled “The Future of Video Distribution: Are You in, Or Out?”
In 2014, also along the same lines of “what’s-in-the-future-for-video-and-other-data-distributors?” IoTComplete’s Jimmy Schaeffler combined with former Technicolor executive, Greg Gudorf, and with Steve Barnes, a key WISP from the company, PCS-WIN, out of Winchester, IN, and a member of the board of the Wireless Internet Service Provider’s Assn (WISPA), to introduce about 100 attendees to a panel titled, “New Vertical Markets, The Internet of Things and Beyond.”
The presentation was able to introduce many of the attendees to some of the intricacies of cloud workings; the opportunities behind the FCC’s new Rural Broadband Experiment; and case studies involving some forward leaning IoT entities, such as Solekai Systems and Monaca, and Sensus Flexnet. Within these topics, the authors talked about issues such as licensed vs. unlicensed spectrum; sensors that measure tanks; and many of the realities behind a government filing.
Indeed, because he had spoken several days before with an FFC Bureau Chief, Jimmy Schaeffler had some interesting updates from basic operations and mechanisms, to policy POVs.
WISP Board Members Speak
Another rather catching set of observations came from several of the top WISPA personnel. Indeed, WISPA vice president, Nathan Stooke, identified the 2014 WISPAPALOOZA speech by current FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, as another true keynote of the 2014 event. Stooke labeled that Pai address was “big time.” Another testament to the importance of ISPs bringing more bandwidth to American, was and the sheer number of WISPA constituents who attended the annual show “Fiber Weekend.” More big vendors, such as China’s huge consumer electronics and telecom concern, Huawei, as well as Ubiquiti Networks, Mimosa, and JAB Broadband, are coming to the WISPA shows, adding breadth and maturity.
In addition, WISPA Board’s Steve Barnes noted his two takeaways from the event: 1) That, as ALL-IOT.NET’s presentations highlighted, the ISP industry is now faced with a lot of opportunities from the Machine-To-Machine (M2M) side of the IoT world, and 2) That “WISPs are getting very competitive when it comes to delivery of Internet to consumers.”
Further summarizing the 2014 WISPAPALOOZA event in Las Vegas, WISPA’s outside counsel, and 2014 WISPA Visionary Award winner, Washington, DC attorney Steve Coran, Esq., of the Washington, DC-based law firm Lerman Senter, left this year’s event noting, “I guess I’m just really proud of what these guys have been able to accomplish.”
Other IoT Presentations
This column will continue to be a source for updates and reports about these presentations, both at the corporate level and at the trade group level, as well. Indeed, there’s an awful lot of pent-up energy supporting the growth of IoT, and judging the response IoTComplete.com has received thus far to its introduction of IoT business services, that growth will increase quickly and incrementally!
IoT is here to stay. IoT is here to thrive. Welcome onto what will be a remarkable travel down and more remarkable road.
IoTComplete.com got an awful lot out of WISPAPALOOZA 2014, probably in great measure because the year-over-year stature of WISP’s is ascending so quickly. This is due in large measure to improving technologies, but also to revised government regulations and policies, and some rather able executives guiding the trade group through some tough times in Washington, DC. Jimmy Schaeffler is honored to have been two times consecutively invited to speak at the WISPA Annual Show in Las Vegas.