Cellular phones are, as you well know, ubiquitous these days. And for the past decade, the dominant players in the industry have been well distributed around the globe. There is strong representation from Korea, Japan, Scandinavia, Germany, the U.S., China, Taiwan, and lots of activity elsewhere, too. A U.S. company, Motorola, was first to build a cellular phone, but after two recent telecom industry slumps, some of the venerable North American stalwarts have ceded considerable ground to competitors abroad. But, in a remarkable turnaround, the recent trends towards convergence have revitalized the local telecom sectors, driven largely by the media, the Internet, personal computer and startup sectors.

Convergence, in this case, refers to the confluence of mobile phones with data services, media consumption, and a shift in the phones themselves towards being handheld computers. This confluence, to a large extent, seems related to a flurry of activity based out of the U.S. high-tech sector, and notably Silicon Valley. Now, being based here, I have a bias towards Silicon Valley, but (like many others) I came here for a reason: If there is a single place on earth where the combined energies of wireless, media, Web 2.0, computing, and startups congregate more than any other, then it’s here.

The region combines the device ingenuity of Danger and Apple, the operating system innovation in Android, the communications leap of Twitter, the network powerhouses like Cisco, middleware from Sun’s Java, database specialists like Oracle, content from leading portals like Yahoo, search powerhouses like Google, processor giants like Intel, some 40% of U.S. telecom venture capital activity, corporate VCs, startups of every stripe … and those are just head offices. Add in the requisite field offices from dozens of tier-one operators, and quick links to our media and telecom neighbors in San Diego and Los Angeles and you can see how the region has a powerful effect on the global telecom industry. And the convergence of these formerly separate sectors has helped the USA reclaim an important leadership position in the global industry.

Source: Ethio Planet News