Hyperconnectivity: Hype or what?

So far hyperconnectivity is a business turnaround strategy, a marketing campaign and a vision for the future of connectivity. Of the three, it is most compelling as a vision put forth by beleaguered Canadian telecom giant Nortel.

According to Nortel, Hyperconnectivity is a fast approaching time when there will be tremendous demand for multiple connections, anytime, anywhere from any device. Nortel CTO John Roese defines hyperconnectivity as a “state in which the number of network connections exceeds the number of humans using it.” Certainly the demand for bandwidth is increasinging geometrically. With the onset of social networking applications, video sharing, ipTV and the increasing number of new internet connections, it is easy to envision a hyperconnected world. And in order to meet the connectivity demands of the hyper-connected world, Nortel foresees the creation of a new kind of network that is simpler to design and operate. And who better to build such networks than Nortel? Maybe.

Beyond the vision and marketing, Nortel is underpinning its hyperconnected vision on three standards - WIMAX, Ultra-Mobile Broadband and LTE. These standards in themselves are not Nortel’s innovations. Besides companies like Motorola and Samsung have been working on these technologies for longer periods. That maybe one reason why Nortel has recently started looking at acquisitions.

They offer a compelling vision and they certainly offer some cool websites (check out this website and Nortel CTO’s blog). But can they provide the technology and services to build the networks of the hyperconnected world? Now, that’s a $100 billion dollar question. We should keep our eyes on Nortel.

Addendum (2-12-08) - In the last few days there have been announcements about a possible merger/partnership between Nortel and Motorola. This merger would be similar to the Lucent/Alkatel merger, which means its going to be difficult and unlikely to produce great results, financially or technically, for some time. With Sprint dropping its plans for a nationwide WIMAX network in 2008 and Nortel still struggling financially (stock price at lowest point since 2003) its going to be very difficult for Nortel to deliver on the promise and vision of hyperconnectivity. My verdict is that hyperconnectivity is hype. Smaller and more nimble competitors will likely deliver hyperconnectivity innovations sooner than Nortel. One such innnovator is Alvarion. You can read my post about Alvarion here.