Wireless association to embrace content players for first time in its history

Content players have been invited to join Canada’s largest telecommunications lobby group as it begins to grapple with the need to fill new wireless pipes. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) has created a new Wireless Internet Council with the aim of fostering the growth of WAP, third-generation PCS and similar types of content. The association had, until now, been an exclusive club for wireless carriers, applications developers and hardware manufacturers. Its decision to open the doors to pure-play content developers mirrors similar moves at other industry associations where traditional broadcast and telecom companies are realizing the potential of interactive content to drive subscriber growth. The new council will be chaired by Garner Bornstein, CEO of Montreal-based Airborne Entertainment, which markets a series of mobile entertainment properties. Airborne, along with companies like Hip Interactive and ZAQ Inc, are among a new breed of wireless content developers that are attempting to deliver content and games outside the desktop setting. Bornstein was elected chair at the council’s inaugural meeting at the end of May. "We’re not just establishing a communication network, we’re now becoming enablers of a whole variety of content, services and transactions," Bornstein told Canadian NEW MEDIA. "So it’s almost a new era in telecommunications – as enablers – as opposed to just a telecommunications infrastructure." The council faces several challenges to make more content available for wireless users. Its first priority though will be to bolster its membership ranks with more content players. "That’s my main goal over the next few weeks, to bring five or six young dynamic members who can really bring a perspective of ‘hey, we’ve got much more we can do here than just enable people to talk to each other’," explains Bornstein. Companies that join the CWTA will be in good company. The group, which evolved from a small collection of radio spectrum players in the early 90s, is one of the few remaining telecommunications players in the country following the demise of the Canadian Business Telecommunications Alliance two years ago. Since then, CWTA executives have been quietly exploring a broader role for the association that would include representing all telecom service providers and content players in addition to hardware companies such as Nortel Networks Corp. This year’s annual CWTA conference, Communications2001, November 6-8, is being billed as "Canada’s Communications Showcase", and will feature convergence as an important theme. The Canadian Association of Internet Providers, and non-wireless guests such as Heather Reisman, president of Chapters/Indigo, for example, will explore Internet-related topics for the first time in the conference’s history.

Wireless association to embrace content players for first time in its history

News | 06/14/2001 4:00 am EDT

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