The Federal Communications Commission had begun work on a National Broadband Plan, which will benefit citizens and businesses. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act called upon the FCC to submit a national broadband plan to Congress by February 17, 2010 that discusses broadband deployment, adoption, affordability and the use of broadband in relation to education, energy, efficiency, and public safety.

Julius Genachowski, Federal Communications Commission chairman explained at the recent opening broadband workshop that broadband “is to us what railroads, electricity, highways and telephones were to previous generations—a platform for commerce, for democratic engagement, and for helping address major national challenges.”

The plan is to reduce the Digital Divide and bring broadband to nearly 40 percent of Americans not yet served by broadband to the home. In some areas, this figure is as high as 60 percent. The National Broadband Plan will also create jobs, spur innovation and promote competition. 

Technology vendors and service providers have the opportunity to unite the country in this initiative; one which is easily understandable by citizens, the press and legislators and bring the benefits of technology to underserved and un-served areas.  Who knows? Perhaps broadband can be for the early 21st century what putting a man on the moon was in the 1960s—a point of patriotism and progress for the country.

Update: Tweet Up location: The Las Vegas Hilton, the Pool Area on the Third Floor. The Hilton is connected to the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Attention all folks attending CTIA in Las Vegas. Our friends at Qik will be hosting a Tweet Up on Wednesday,  April 1, at 7-10 pm.  This is a great opportunity to connect with people interested in the intersection of social media and the mobile industry. This also is a great opportunity to build on the success of the Tweet Up at Mobile World Congress.

The location is still being determined. You can sign up and get more information at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=69119667494. If you are not on Facebook, feel free to post in the comments section if you are interested in attending. I will pass the information to the folks at Qik.We will post updates here on Vantage Points and on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Check for hash tag #CTIA on Twitter.  For more information about networking events at CTIA, check out the awesome list from:

Mobileslate: http://www.mobileslate.com/blog/2009-ctia-spring-networking-events/

Look forward to meeting you there.

Update: Tweet Up at Mobile World Congresson Wednesday Feb. 18 at 5 pm. Location: 7 Sins, Muntaner 7, 08011. Please check out http://blog.pr-vantage.com/?p=1036 for more Tweet Up details.

Surprisingly, less than a month before Mobile World Congress 2009, no one had set up a hash tag on Twitter for the major wireless industry trade show. A “hash tag” uses the symbol – # – followed by a name to allow people to search and find information on Twitter. With a hash tag, people attending the show could connect with other people at the show. Also, people not attending the show could follow in real-time what was happening at the show.

So into the breach jumped the Vantage Communications team. With the help of Tory Klaubo, we checked out who recently had posted Tweets on Mobile World Congress. We then got a discussion going and came up with #mwc09. Then we tweeted the name out to the community, and it was retweeted and retweeted. Our imediate goal is to connect more people attending the show via Twitter. Eventually, the plan is for me to be Live-Tweeting during the show.

Although social networking will be a hot topic for MWC 09, it is surprising that the organizer, GSMA, is not actively using Twitter, Facebook, etc. to enhance the experience of people attending the show. There have been sporadic posts on social media about trying to make a connection. Yet, there seems to be a large void in connecting these people. With travel budgets under siege, trade show organizers need to go the extra mile. Using social media to make connection seems like an easy and inexpensive way to add value.

Until this comes to pass, Vantage is stepping up. Join us by spreading the word about the show via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. To keep up with my Mobile World Congress experiences, follow me on Twitter: @robadler. If you want to meet at the show, e-mail info [at] pr-vantage.com, leave your contact information in the comments or send me a message on Twitter.  But social networking will only be successful if  we all are responsible and take action. Look forward to connecting with you.

The two big Telecom trade associations announced that they are junking “NXTcomm” and resurrecting “Supercomm” as the name for their June 2009, tradeshow. According to Light Reading, the change is in response to customer demand.

Does this mean that the Telecom industry is getting ready to be party like its 1999 in 2009? Unfortunately, changing the name will not be enough to turn back the clock to the days when Supercomm was a multiple building, SRO event.

The Supercomm name would have been helpful when the USTA and TIA rejoined to put together a single industry show in 2007. But now exhibitors and attendees are making their decision based on their experiences over the past two years at the June Telecom trade show, regardless of what it is called. If the lead generation numbers are not good, they could call this show SuperDuperComm and it will not make a difference.

As Craig Matsumoto points out, “the buzz of the industry has shifted to areas such as wireless,” pointing to the success of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Interestingly, in 2008, the name of the Barcelona show changed from 3GSM to Mobile World Congress (MWC). Despite many people still calling that show 3GSM, MWC managed to sell out 7 Halls with record crowds!

The reason for the success of the MWC, and the CTIA show in the U.S. is that there are significant business opportunities in wireless and mobile, and being at these shows provides companies a platform to talk to potential customers. So what is the likelihood of there being similar business opportunities at Supercomm 2009?

Matsumoto notes that that the backers of Supercomm include Tier 1 carriers such as Verizon and ATT. Unfortuantely, these are the same Tier 1 carriers that Telecom vendors are reporting poor earnings quarters cite for delaying their equipment purchasing decisions. So expecting Telecom service providers to show up in force at the show does not seem like a great assumption. That makes it even more important to drive traffic to your booth and reach the large number of people who will follow Supercomm by reading the news. That means that if you want the June Telecom trade show to be “super”, you need to plan to include PR as part of your trade show plans.

Andy Abramson, Jon Arnold and other bloggers and online publications have commented on the recent layoff of 20 analysts at Yankee Group. Couple this with layoffs at Heavy Reading/Light Reading following its acquisition of Pyramid Research and I’m a bit sad for my former colleagues and the telecom industry. Then, I think more about what the bloggers are saying and realize that change can be good and necessary for the analyst firms.

Andy noted that “For years analysts have played a crucial role, but it has been the big firms where the mainstream media has looked for insight, just as the clients of the analyst firms have looked as well for market guidance and a sounding board. Now, with a very connected environment, the independent analyst armed with a laptop, a VoIP line, a conference bridge and a web site can rise up and rival the bigger firms and provide the kind of custom insight they used to look to the big firms for.”

This statement reminds me of one of my favorite business books. In the book, “The World is Flat,” Thomas Friedman explains that through the Internet and other telecommunications technologies, geographic boundaries to communicating and competing are falling. The one-man band analyst can appear just as professional as the large organization without the overhead. Although large research firms have greater resources than the smaller firms, there is a new breed of analysts and bloggers who leverage the Internet and the technologies about which they were writing and analyzing. Andy refers to these peoples as Analyst 2.0.

Jon Arnold in his comment on Andy’s blog notes that the role of the analyst is to turn information into knowledge and insight. I agree–It is difficult to place a price on information. Why is a research report valued at $5,000 and a Potter book at $35? It’s the value of the information. The problem faced by research firms is that the value of information quickly becomes stale in a competitive, time-sensitive business. Individuals with less overhead and fewer processes can focus on Internet and quick turnaround to compete successfully with the big boys.

Analysts, whether with “traditional firms,” Analyst 2.0s or bloggers are an important part of Vantage clients’ marketing plans. These people are key influencers to whom media and service providers look for insight. An analyst firm or individual analyst’s greatest asset is the brainpower of the analyst therefore analysts should be judged on their expertise and tenacity and not on the firm with which associated. Timeliness is becoming more critical and the world is flattening. Peronally, I will continue to include analysts and bloggers in the marketing mix and caution clients against dismissing their influence as the industry changes to meet a changing economy.