The Wireless Broadband Alliance Board of Directors recently approved the future strategic vision for the WBA – Vision 2020. JR Wilson, WBA Chairman, shared his thoughts on how Vision 2020 positions the WBA to address the changing wireless ecosystem.
JR Wilson, Chairman, Wireless Broadband Alliance
What is the WBA Vision 2020 mission?
The mission of the WBA is to champion the development of the converged wireless broadband ecosystem through seamless, secure and interoperable unlicensed wireless broadband services for delivering an outstanding user experience.
What are the strategic priorities?
There are three strategic priorities:
First, we will continue to accelerate Next Generation Wi-Fi adoption within the carrier and the wider public Wi-Fi ecosystem, building on our heritage of NGH and Carrier Wi-Fi.
Second, we will continue to diversify around the role of Wi-Fi and other unlicensed wireless services within new market opportunities such as IoT, Big Data, Converged Services, Smart Cities, 5G, etc.
Lastly, we will continue to increase the organizational significance and capacity of the WBA to enable us to drive our strategic vision. Building on our strong momentum, we will continue to engage key industry stakeholders and influencers and accelerate the growth of the WBA to build new resources and financial capacity that enables us to develop new opportunities in terms of membership, programs, events, partnerships and strategic initiatives.
Why was there a need for a Vision 2020?
The wireless ecosystem, particularly as it relates to unlicensed spectrum, is changing rapidly. There are new opportunities for the WBA to engage and lead in helping the broader ecosystem to flourish. To be successful, we need to make sure our vision is aligned with the new landscape.
With billions of ‘people & things’ becoming increasingly connected, the need to combine the potential of unlicensed and licensed wireless services has become an imperative for the operators, cities, high-density venues and players focused on key market opportunities such as IoT, Big Data and 5G. The WBA has developed Vision 2020 to harness its experience of creating seamlessly interconnected wireless services in new and emerging areas.
What changes do you envision as the WBA implements Vision 2020?
The WBA will focus our programs and projects to accelerate next gen Wi-Fi and enlargement of work-areas to support interoperable unlicensed wireless services. We will look to strategically grow the scope, significance & scale of events to support Vision 2020 as well as identify and pursue strategic partnership opportunities with relevant forums and alliances. We intend to create new membership opportunities and categories to match the wider eco-system involvement in the WBA in addition to establishing strategic engagements with key industry influencers & leadership groups in relevant areas and champion matters such as security, privacy, policy and regulatory topics (as appropriate) in relation to Wi-Fi & unlicensed wireless.
Specifically, a few new programs underway related to Vision 2020 include:
To guide the WBA in implementing Vision 2020 we assembled a WBA Advisory Board made up of accomplished, visionary industry leaders including Bill Hague, AT&T Executive Vice President of Global Connection Management, Reza Jafari, Chairman and CEO of e-Development International and Mohan Gyani, Telecom industry investor and advisor, to provide strategic independent advice to the WBA Board & Management for growing the significance, positioning and scale of WBA events.
The WBA has created the Connected City Advisory Board to develop, share, and promote thought leadership and practical frameworks for the social and economic development and sustainable operation of the Smart City ecosystem for the long term benefit of all stakeholders. It provides an exclusive platform for City Managers and CIOs to knowledge-share and create best practices with their counterparts in other cities and also determine the best way to leverage public-private partnerships. The inaugural meeting of the WBA Connected City Advisory Board will coincide with the upcoming Wi-Fi Global Congress in San Jose from October 12th to 15th.
A new project is underway related to deploying LTE in Unlicensed Spectrum with a goal to examine and contrast LAA, LWA and LTE-U proposed solutions for leveraging unlicensed spectrum to augment LTE in licensed spectrum, from the point of view of the market and issues impacting operator deployment.
For more information on WBA Vision 2020 please contact Ton Brand
