The Congress was full of big announcements, but none bigger than Verizon Wireless revealing the long-awaited winners for its LTE deployment contracts. Overlooking Nortel in the first major 4G equipment deal. Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent were named the radio access providers while Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent will provide an IMS layer.
Next-gen mobile broadband is a key ticket, if not the ticket, out of the global economic slump, according to a GSM Association panel calling for regulators to develop frameworks and spectrum policies encouraging mobile broadband investment.
Development economist Jeffery Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, said the mobile industry would play a key role in economic recovery as governments needed to look for new ways to restimulate the economy.
'The mobile sector will be resilient, and will drive important innovation in vital services, energy saving and sustainability,' Sachs said at a GSMA press conference.
Sachs' comments echoed previous claims by the GSMA even before the current crisis that mobile investment is a key tool that governments can use to boost their GDPs.
The GSMA's press corps was working overtime, with a number of significant alliances and initiatives announced.
In what may be its most popular move with consumers to date, the GSM Association has won backing from 17 cellcos and manufacturers to create a universal phone charger by the start of 2012.