We’ve left the Industrial Age behind. And Wi-Fi is at the core of the Connected Economy. If you don’t know what any of that means, I urge you to order a copy of this book by Seth Godin now. You will need to get into this if you’re hunting for spectacular success in 2016.
The end of the Industrial Age of course does not mean that we will no longer have factories producing tons of goods and services that we can buy and enjoy or awesome transformative companies like SpaceX, Tesla, and Google seeding a world of space-age infrastructure for transport and energy.
It means that the Connected Economy – think Uber, Airbnb, Bitcoin – offers alternative models for creating & exchanging value on a global scale. The tenet of the Connected Economy is grasroots-enabled value exchange: Give a small piece, connect, engage, get a bigger piece back. Not easy to get off the ground – but big when it happens.
Some (but not all) of these models are at odds with industrial models. But the opportunities to build business through ‘connectedness’ are here right now. Wi-Fi is a critical component of this because it enables the Connected Economy to thrive without a license by extending the reach of the Internet itself.
The industrial telecoms model
Here’s the industrial (carrier) model: Carve out exclusive territory by spending billions on exclusive rights. Rights may include certain radio bands or (de-facto) exclusive rights to a service in an area. Then serve up the product to consumers. This approach is one-directional: Service flows out, money flows in.
But here’s the thing: There is no technical reason why exclusive rights is the only option. It is simply the economic structure that we’re used to and there are countless billions tied up in this gigantic symbiotic relationship between corporations and regulation. This symbiosis has served us well for a hundred years or more. But we need to move on if we want to keep growing.
The Wi-Fi (Connected Economy) model
Wi-Fi is the antithesis of this because Wi-Fi is telecom’s only technology based on sharing. Anyone can build a Wi-Fi network and offer a service. Anyone can build even a massive Wi-Fi footprint if you can get enough people interested in sharing your business, your visions, goals, dreams.
Wi-Fi has become a cornerstone of the Internet – and (indirectly) democracy, free speech, free enterprise, innovation, growth – precisely because it is unlicensed, shared, and requires no permission from anyone to happen. Wi-Fi has liberated telecoms and will continue to be an engine of growth unless we squander this huge opportunity by not understanding its value.
That’s why we need more of it. We need more shared radio spectrum. And that’s also the reason why I am hoping that the recent invasion of unlicensed (Wi-Fi) bands with carrier-only technology (4G) will go to an early grave.
With the very best wishes from all of us at Wi-Fi NOW for a spectacularly succesful 2016! We look forward to connecting even more passionate Wi-Fi folks next year.
