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There was plenty to talk about last week in Las Vegas at CTIA’s annual Super Mobility week trade show. From autonomous cars to spectrum auctions to 5G, the wireless industry continues to move forward in new and interesting ways.
To be clear, though, there was little in the way of major announcements at CTIA this year. That was a big difference from past years, when carriers would pull out all the stops to announce their latest wireless network advancements, and handset makers would hold major press events to take the wraps off their latest and greatest.
Indeed, the most noteworthy news in the wireless industry last week happened not in Las Vegas but in San Francisco, where Apple unveiled its latest iPhone and made the “courageous” decision to remove the gadget’s 3.5 mm headphone jack.
But anyway.
Although CTIA this year was a relatively quiet affair, those in the industry generally argued that the future remains bright as networks continue to become more flexible and capable and the opportunities to connect things - bikes, drones, the list goes on - continues to grow.
CTIA, for its part, declined to release attendance figures for this year’s event. Instead the association released a statement from chief executive Meredith Attwell Baker: “With standing-room only keynotes, educational sessions and more activity than ever before, CTIA Super Mobility 2016 exceeded our goals and expectations. This was a great foundation for our new event next year in San Francisco.”
With that in mind, here are the best of worst of this year’s CTIA show, compiled by me and my colleagues Monica Alleven and Colin Gibbs:
Best: Smart cities, smart city tech implementations
One of the smartest things CTIA show organizers did was the Smart City Park, an area on the show floor highlighting interesting and innovative implementations of smart city technologies. Big leafy creatures - including one on stilts -- walking around the area certainly drew attention, and a lot of show attendees used the area to sit and collect their bearings.
In the same general area, AT&T set up an exhibit that featured several smart tech implementations that are either here or coming, including an acoustic device that can be attached to public infrastructure for detecting gunshots on a city...