No Xohm, no big announcements or deals, but the now data-dominated CTIA still buzzed

Searching for a common theme at CTIA Wireless has become a tricky proposition. An industry once focused on voice has transitioned into one focused on services of every color and stripe.

The show floor mainstays of base stations and cell phones have given way to myriad contraptions: femtocells, access points, multimedia computers, mobile TV players, connected electronics and embedded modules. Even the old standby wireless plans composed of minute bundles and per-message charges have given way to unlimited plans and the prospect of open-access service.

At the keynote podium, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin decried the brewing battle over 4G standards, while Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin debated the merits of a regulated wireless industry. On the show floor, app developers plumbed the limits of Linux-based operating systems such as Google's Android and explored competitive responses to the iPhone. On the operator front, AT&T was the most active, launching new location-based services, fattening up its mobile music offering and announcing a mobile TV service with Qualcomm. Social-networking companies such as Bluepulse and Facebook released some surprising numbers, showing that Internet-based communities could be extended to the mobile phone.

The first networks built over the new advanced wireless services band went live at CTIA, marking it the first commercialization of a band other than cellular or PCS. The 700 MHz auction winners were revealed shortly before the show, and soon after, AT&T and Verizon unveiled their plans for long-term evolution and evolved high-speed packet access networks on that spectrum. Sprint may not have commercially launched its WiMAX network at the show, but it did its best to keep WiMAX on the radar screen, helped by Nokia, which unveiled the first stand-alone hand-held data device for the future Xohm network.

If there was something that tied all these items together it was probably a nugget Steve Largent, president of CTIA, tossed out the first day: Wireless data revenues have grown to $23 billion annually in the U.S., making up 17% of carrier revenues. Every device, network box and line of code was aimed at growing that percentage.

iPHONE TIME USAGE FOR U.S. CONSUMERS

Oddly, the one company that pervaded the CTIA show wasn't even physically present: Apple. New iSuppli numbers show the impact of the iPhone extends even beyond its influence over app developers and device-makers. The iPhone's Safari browser is now the top U.S. mobile browser, less than one year into its existence.