Imagine VIP: The Future of Wireless Mesh VoIP

Imagine it�s the year 2025 and as you glowingly smile at your new child and give it the wonderful new name that you and your spouse have agreed upon (how about Cecelia?), it dawns on you that you�re not done yet! You remembered to apply for Cecelia�s social security number, assigned by the government, so no decisions there. And the tax deduction will be great, right? So what other lifetime choice must you now make as parents of your little bundle of joy? (Or your �little liability� as one of my friends jokingly yet lovingly calls her kids as she goes over the ever growing list of expenses that quickly accrue.) Let us think...

Ah yes, there was another form that the hospital gave you as you were completing the birth certificate information. You rummage around and find the �VIP� ID application or �Virtual Internet Protocol� identification form. It�s a no-brainer in this day in age that while a VIP may be �voluntary� as the government would say, it is essentially mandatory. For a small application fee, your child will receive a bracelet or necklace of your choice with her own lifetime personal virtual IP or �VIP� address. As time goes on, this VIP address may turn out to be more valuable and important than her social security number, especially since the social security retirement pot recently ran dry.

You then choose between the annual renewal fee or the one-time lifelong annual purchase option. Both options provide automatic annual VIP replacement or upgrades for your child's entire lifespan, but you�re kind of leaning toward the one-time option since it�s almost like purchasing life insurance when you�re young and the cost is lowest. In fact, for an extra 10 percent, you can include a $5 million term life insurance policy on Cecelia with your one-time VIP fee. You know this is way too cool since your parents are always commenting on how they wish they had VIP when you were born. They like the VIP idea so much that they have insisted that they pay for the VIP lifetime option. That�s okay with you, since you will not only ultimately lower your lifetime communication costs but you will also always be able to locate your child. Plus, who knows what features VIP will add in the future and best of all, Cecelia will immediately begin accumulating those valuable VIP points (the only �currency� that the government hasn�t taxed yet!)

As a true geek at heart, this VIP technology is ho-hum to you but your parents, and of course their parents, are amazed. So while the installation instructions are simple: (a) Install battery, (b) Place bracelet on ankle or wrist or necklace on neck and (c) Read the short description portion to see what the latest gizmos are. 

First, the bracelet will now sync to the latest �z-band� frequencies in addition to the usual �b, c, d and e band� license-free spectrum. This now means that you will know where Cecelia is whenever you want and that her VIP bracelet will also transport TV quality live video images as well. This will either be a blessing or a curse when she gets to her teen years, but until then at least you�ll know where to find her when she wanders off and gets lost on that inevitable future family trip to DisneyWorld (GPS coordinates are also helpful at Disney - read Tom Keating's Blog for more information!) Who knows, by the time she�s a teenager, she�ll probably be so wrapped up in video instant messaging, global virtual dating and global virtual gaming that she won�t even be able to imagine that in your days as a teenager, one could still try to pull the wool over your parents eyes when asked, �So, what did you and your friends do tonight?�

As you read the description, you realize that this bracelet is essentially an IP wireless mesh transceiver with built-in location based and presence capabilities. Simple enough, yet even so you still marvel at how the hardware has been shrunk to the atomic level (so much for using your dad�s soldering iron to fix this thing!), let alone all the communication capabilities that the open source software allows for and definitely at lower cost than in the captive software days. In fact, the business models have changed so much that similar to the way you ditched your wired cable service provider in 2007 (who wanted to be roped into a wired solution all the time anymore?) you recently dumped your �wireless� cellular carrier as well. Didn�t need them anymore either.

With the millions and millions of VIP wireless mesh transceivers that now exist, it seems that almost every square kilometer is covered from coast to coast by a VIP transport point-of-presence. Amazing how this all works since everybody is moving around all the time and yet everybody has the power to communicate with anyone virtually anywhere in the US via voice, video or data, and most of the developed world too! (Hmm, didn�t great grandfather tell us that AT&T (news - alert - quote) promoted a video vision like this with its videophone at the 1934 World Fair? Wow, that was almost 100 years ago and it�s finally happened!) 

Yes, the age of really cool stuff has arrived after decades of corporate hype and those infamous cloud diagrams! Especially when considering how the wired Internet, over time, transformed into hundreds of millions of meshed wireless living, breathing, and moving IP free spectrum communication entities, each belonging to the VIP wireless club of their choice offering unlimited virtual services, and all without a two-year lock-in contract! You can now communicate much simpler and easier than in the old days, when one had to pay a service provider for significantly lesser service even if they would sell it to you at a reasonable price. If VIP Club A doesn�t give you the service you like, you just transfer your VIP service contract to someone else, automatically. And all these clubs are interconnected! Pick the one you want to join and virtually all your communications needs are provided for at an affordably low VIP club cost. 

You realize that Cecelia will have no idea how nice it is living in a world of VIP wireless technology versus having to always go through a service provider as in your childhood days. Yes, service providers still provide important services such as inter-planetary links, but at least the earthly world has finally broken free from their chains. Kind of funny how this all evolved with all the lobbying and government regulations that were �mandated� over the years to try and save these older businesses. Lower cost technology advancements and license-free spectrum coupled with an increasingly educated populace destroyed all the old captive business models. However, you and your wife are still glad to have grown up in families of regulatory lawyers since their earnings permitted you to go the college of your choice!

But seriously though, ever since China-Radio Shack Seven-Eleven LLC, came out with IP cell phones and IP PDAs (news - alert - define - tutorial) that would work on any global wireless system using low cost WLAN/WAN/IP/VIP/cellular/3G, whatever you want to call it -- instant seek-route technology -- almost 95 percent of the time your communication needs are now routed via VIP wireless mesh technology versus one of the major brand name wireless service providers. Even when you�re traveling overseas! Yes, people are finally in control of their own communications needs at an amazingly low price. Isn�t this as it should be in a country where Americans take �freedom of speech� very seriously? That is, once they woke up and forever banned that so called infamous and hastily passed �Patriot Act.�

As you close the instruction manual, you begin to think about the other cool benefits of VIP for Cecelia. Throughout life she will earn VIP points that can be applied to a huge variety of choices. She can use them to help pay for her college tuition, maybe fund that summer European trekking adventure like the one you took one summer, or possibly one of the new inter-planetary space flights that Milky Way Galaxy Airways is offering. The options seem to be limitless and even better yet, your growing virtual family is closer than ever. Who knows what capabilities will be included in next year's VIP bracelet? But you can thank VIP for the freedom to communicate. Thank you also for the untold millions of VIP points that Cecelia will earn for each communications transport her bracelet interconnects. VIP points that not only earn interest but will also appreciate and she can use them however she wishes as she grows up. Who knows, VIP point income may even help pay for her retirement someday! Thank you VIP, the future of wireless mesh VoIP has finally arrived.

Dale Rogers is Principal Associate at DTR Associates in San Francisco , CA , which focuses on business-market development, research, and business turnaround situations in the telecommunication and related hi-tech industries. He has 20 years telecom experience and has held executive and managerial positions at companies such as OKI Electric, TeleCommunication Systems, AT&T-NS-Lucent, AT&T Asia/Pacific, Bell Laboratories and Spectrum Service. Dale can be contacted at [email protected].