It's a Wireless World

Wireless revenue passed landline revenue internationally in 2006 and will be 59 percent greater by 2010, says the Telecommunications Industry Association. In the global markets, that means wireless customers outside the United States will increase by 975 million people by 2010, when the wireless total will reach 3.13 billion.

Wireless customers in the United States, meanwhile, will total 270 million in 2010, up from 216 million last year and 135 million just five years earlier. Wireless customers in the Asia/Pacific region totaled 963 million at the end of 2006 and are expected to total 1.58 billion by 2010, more than twice the number expected to be in Europe by then.

Wireless data revenue in the United States was nearly $13 billion last year and is expected to reach $44 billion in 2010, TIA notes.

It doesn't get any easier than this...

MINO Wireless has done one heck of a job in the user interface area. MINO provides a downloaded application running on BlackBerries that routes international calls on MINO's network rather than the mobile provider's network. If you make international calls on your mobile, you know what that tends to cost. As a rule, applications requiring a client download don't do as well as apps that don't require a download. I'd have to say this was the smoothest download I've ever encountered for my BlackBerry. The client is pushed out without user involvement and then installs with about two clicks, as I recall. I'd say it was as painless as anything I've encountered yet. The "use MINO" prompt appears whenever I open the directory to make a call, and offers two options: bill the enterprise account or use my personal account. That's it.

I earlier had downloaded and installed another application that provides the same functionality. But I'd have to say the user interface was much more opaque. Confusing, in fact. That application hasn't been used (which is why I once or twice have gotten emails reminding me that I can use the app). User interface is REALLY important. MINO Wireless has done a great job.