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Author
Henry Banks
Product Manager for Mobiles
Macquarie Telecom
The future of mobile technology - How mobile devices of the future will save
your life
Over the next 10 years, Henry Banks, Product Manager for Mobiles, is predicting
some rather dramatic changes in mobile technology including resolution of the
LTE (Long Term Evolution) vs. WiMAX debate with a glimpse into how mobile
technology might save your life.
The next 3 years…
In the coming years we’re going to see the dramatic evolution of the 3G network
into 3GPP or Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE will have the advantage over WiMAX
because it’s anticipated that about 80% of carriers world wide will choose LTE
technology over the open developed WiMax, largely for the better network
performance.
Vodafone will be starting rolling out LTE on a global scale in 2010, however the
service probably won’t achieve wider adoption till about 2012 with businesses
taking the lead as the need for workforce mobility heightens and network
capacity needs increase.
In the next 4-6 years…
 We’re also going to see the development of ad-hoc networks and Multihop relay
networks which can be deployed anywhere quickly and with little infrastructure.
These networks, like the internet, will alter the route of the data depending on
network conditions and change path based on the best transmission mode.
These networks rely on the use of femtocells and picocells. A femtocells and
picocells look a bit like a Wi-Fi router but performs the same function in the
home or office as cellular base stations that sit in brick buildings at the base
of cell towers. Think of the handset as being the network, and when I say
‘handset’ this could be a mobile device, a watch, and earring or an implanted
chip in your tooth.
Less power hungry devices in combination with flawless speech recognition will
allow mobile devices so small they can reside in your ear or mouth and can be
activated by your voice. Tomorrows mobile chips are going to combine multiple
radios including Wi-Fi, 3G and WiMAX on a single chip.
I can even see a time when a device could be connected to your brain waves in
order to operate it. But that is probably a thought belonging in the following
section.
In the next 7-10 years…
 This takes us to an important trend that is going to emerge, which is the mobile
device as a personal assistant. They will be able to do things for you because
you tell it to, or because it thinks it’s a good idea. It will have a customised
personality and also be able to learn about how you communicate and change its
behaviour based on that knowledge. As outlandish as this sounds, Google already
changes the results they deliver to you in Search Engines based on your previous
search behaviour.
Your mobile device is going to be responsible for all the current phone features
like appointments, address book and music, but the mobile devices of the future
are also going to monitor your health, manage and book your travel just by
entering a date into a calendar, manage your bank accounts, and even send
flowers to a loved one on a special day. The device itself will just be the
access point which will log into your personal network which might be hosted at
your home but really could be anywhere.
So imagine then, if you will, the unfortunate event that you find yourself in a
car accident. Your mobile device, connected to diagnostics in the car, calls the
ambulance to let emergency crews know you’ve had a heart attack and been
involved in a crash. You arrive at hospital where the physician treating you has
access to all your medical history, the administration has access to all your
health insurance information and while you’re recovering you access all your
favourite ‘get well’ music. As futuristic as it sounds, the technology that
supports this scenario is already in development.
When you have a situation where access to this kind of information could hold
incredible power over someone, security as well as privacy is going to be a key
concern. The technical aspect will probably be resolved with a combination of
software (as opposed to complete reliance on the network) and biometrics, so a
combined eye scan, voice activation and password. As usual, it will probably
take regulations a little longer to resolve some of the social implications of
the technology.
Now how can we help you?
Got a question for Henry Banks on the future of mobile technology? Email your question
here.
Contact Macquarie Telecom
about how we can help you manage your mobile technology.
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