• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, November 2, 2005

The hot topic of late is centered on consumer-centric, on-demand delivery of content, and rightfully so. What's getting slightly overlooked is what implications the recent developments in wireless access may have for the delivery of on-demand content to the consumer.

As I sit and write this article in Washington Square Park on a beautiful sunny afternoon in Manhattan, I'm also surfing around various sites using my EVDO wireless card from Verizon. The card works in a similar way to a cell phone; I can get online anywhere there's cell service. I can go online in a cab, in the woods, and just about anyplace I go regularly. The access speeds are a little slow (similar to a dial-up connection), so watching video content can be a little painful, but for the most part it does the trick.

As the cell carriers are launching similar products, WiMax is being offered in some areas, strengthening a traditional wireless network and making it capable of covering a larger ground and supplying broadband access. Many cities are starting to look into offering free Internet access to all residents, like San Francisco where Mayor Gavin Newsome has publicly stated he wants this type of service within the next two years.

As it becomes easier and easier to get online, more appliances will be networked. It's inevitable that we'll be seeing the wireless iPod from Apple in a short time, and Sony's PSP and other handheld devices, some of which are already network-enabled, will be online at all times. This will make the delivery of on-demand content even more widely accessible and will enable consumers to be in even more control, as they'll have limitless access to information from anywhere, at any time--instead of having to plan ahead for going online the way they do now.

Wireless broadband access is going to be enormously popular, and I don't think it's that far away. I think it's a safe bet that we'll see cities like New York and San Francisco become completely wireless in the next 5 years. Of course there is one constituency that will fight this development; the cable and phone operators who would have outdated systems for piping the Web into your home the old-fashioned way, via wires. It will be interesting to see what kind of fight they put up and what concessions they may receive--but the widespread onset of this kind of broadband access is inevitable, because it's what the consumer will want. If we've seen anything in the last 10 years it's that what consumers want, they eventually get.

Just imagine being able to gain access to any content at the drop of a hat via the Web, on any device you want. The impulse-buying mentality will increase and the direct response elements of most advertisers stand to improve in performance, as the consumer will no longer have to wait. It will be a very interesting development for a society that embraces immediate gratification.