The data
battle
The data battle is the most complex and may be the most
important. The complexity of this battle starts with the huge number of players,
including wireless, wire line, satellite, cable and companies from different
industries such as the computer industry, all trying to define the standards.
The data battle is probably the most important because if we consider voice
transmission as a particular case of data transmission (IP telephony, cable
phone), this battle could include part of the voice battle. We can split the
data battle into two sub-battles, the first focused on mobile data transmission
and the second on no-mobile data transmission. To get a better sense of the
mobile data transmission sub-battle, imagine a salesperson or an executive, out
of the office, trying to connect his or her notebook with the company intranet.
He or she can use wire line or wireless technology to make this connection.
Forecasts are showing an exponential growth for this kind of mobile data
transmission. In the no-mobile side we can imagine a similar person trying to
access the Internet from home or from the office. In this case, he or she still
has the same first two options (wireless broadband for instance) but
technologies like ISDN, DSL, cable modem or satellite dishes (PC Direct) can
also be chosen to make the connection.