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Showing posts from March, 2009

Next Billion Network

I have been in love with wireless/mobile industry since 1997 . Wireless represents Freedom, Mobility, and Sharing (FMS). These are essential attributes of human progress. And, FMS is becoming increasingly important for technology, business, and economic progress. Finally, there is an organization that has taken on the mission to apply wireless innovations to contribute to the economic growth 0f a billion people in the under-developed countries. The organization is rightfully called- Next Billion Network (NBN). It is an incubation network at MIT Media Lab. NBN is doing amazing work under the leadership of Jhonatan Rotberg who is the founder of NBN. Currently, there are ~3.5B people who use a wireless phone. However, to connect the next billion people, who are very poor, to the benefits of wireless and to the world, we will need very different business models and applications . And, that's the focus of NBN. Last week as part of NBN guest lecturer series, I gave a lectur

Nature of business

In business, everything that makes sense, eventually happens! No matter what the power of incumbents is. Following are a few examples: 1. Mobility makes sense. Hence, we have mobile phones, laptops/netbooks/smartphones, portable gaming gadgets (PSP, DS), etc. 2. High-Speed Internet makes sense. Hence, we have broadband for which the speeds will continue to increase. 3. Web Services/Cloud Computing makes sense. Amazon has taken the lead, others will follow. 4. All IP Network makes sense. All wireless carriers are moving to LTE or WiMax both enable all IP networks. The idea is very similar to evolution in biology. Evolution is a natural phenomenon. No one can stop it.

Growth and Incompetence

When a company is in high-growth phase, its incompetence is ignored. And when the growth slows, the incompetence becomes obvious.