Friday Tidbyte: The Usual Suspects, Mass Communicators

Every once in a while, I sit down and try to mull over what are the dominant and enticing thoughts that have dominated the Inbuilding Wireless Solutions market. Here's what I've come up with for this Friday's Tidbytes:

Cell phones used to be for the super rich. "What's that? AT&T at 42.50? Buy, you worm! Buy, buy, buy!"

But now, I don't think you can step into a subway car in Manhattan without seeing a cell phone or an iPhone in someone's hand.

And have you ever visited India?

Personal story: In the earlier hours of the morning, a driver picked me up to take me from New Delhi to the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, a good four or five hour drive away. Along the way, the four-wheel drive truck would swerve around donkeys, cattle, wagons filled to the sky with hay, as well as formers up to their dhotis in mud as they walked through the rice fields.

As we pulled up to the railroad crossing to enter into Agra, we were met by several men selling... mobile phones, calling cards, and other things. They had it figured out, boy. What's the first thing you are going to do when you see the beautiful Taj Mahal? Call your mother!

Great pitch!

The most beautiful mausoleum in the world, and a great place for taking cell phone pictures

And though it was not respectful to use phones to make calls inside the tomb, I did see people using phones to take pictures. Outside, looking over the Ganges River, an editor at Platts who attended the tour with us was using her phone to call someone.

The same thing is true at Angkor Wat. Everyone, and I mean everyone leading tour groups through the compound at Angkor Wat in Cambodia had a small Motorola phone in his or her hand. Tourists would snap pictures with their phones. I saw a man get hit by a truck and as he was being rushed to the clinic, his friend was sitting with him in the back of the same truck calling the medics on the phone while they sped away, honking the horn like a panicked lamb.

What does this mean?Mobile phone use is not only easy and affordable, it's becoming pervasive. It's used everywhere. Everywhere. If Rick Blaine in Casablanca had had a mobile phone, he would have been using it all the time in his club, and so would Renault. There would never be any of this having to telephone from the police station, "Round up the usual suspects!"