We’re in the middle of a wireless revolution, we’re told, but where is it going and who’s in charge? Wireless was born in a wild gold rush that cut our umbilical cord to the telephone line. Now cell phones are the most popular consumer product in America, and a whole new generation of wireless services is struggling to take hold.
TV ads tell us daily that soon we’ll be able to do about anything, wireless, from the middle of the Kalahari, or anywhere else. But take away the hype, and the speculative fever that has marked this industry from the beginning and it’s not at all clear just how imminent or even certain this wireless future is.
Despite the industry’s promises, wireless wanna-be’s are stuck for now, with blackberries, palm pilots and cell phones that work, except when they don’t.
(Hosted by Tom Ashbrook)
Guests:
James Murray, author of “Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution in America”
and Paul Boutin, a senior editor at WIRED magazine.