According to a group of the telco's top technologists and futurologists, the areas of mobile working using Wi-Fi, broadband, and IP networking all saw very significant progress in 2003. Having been three of the best-utilised new technologies of the year, BT Exact is predicting that they will spawn a surge of useful applications during this decade.
"2003 has seen big strides forward for a number of technologies that have been on the radar for some time now, such as broadband and WiFi," said Stewart Davies, chief executive of BT Exact. "Next year is going to be even more exciting with technologies such as 3G and smart cards reaching fruition and the real beginnings of other radical technologies that are going to shape our worlds as 21st century citizens."
After a painfully slow start, the creation of Broadband Britain is going well at present. Just over three million people have signed up, and there is a clear path to near-universal broadband availability within a few years.
Wi-Fi also appears to be doing well. Although some analysts claim there isn't a business case for running public access wireless networks, hundreds of Wi-Fi hot spots are being created every week across Britain.
Other top technologies of 2003, according to BT Exact, were voice photo messaging, genetic engineering and liquid crystal display screens.
BT Exact forecast that 3G, smart cards and the controversial RFID technology will be the hot technologies in 2004, as they have all reached a point where they are ready to flourish in the IT sector.
Talkback
I suppose the only real downside is that for all this so called innovation BT are still selling as the mainstay product 512k and for a good part of home users the absolute fastest they can take is 1Mbit only just released. This when other countries are looking at 10 and100Mbit services, and most don't even consider 512k to be broadband.
Certainly BT have advanced mid-band though (their description 3 years ago of anything less than 1Mbit) shame they aren't giving some real speed to UK consumers, and more concerning, UK businesses. The dubious SDSL rollout which seemed motivated more by where leased line sales weren't up to scratch just another example.
For all their so-called innovation BT are still, outside maybe of exact, an 'old-school' telco struggling to cling on to old cash-cows to the detriment of the entire UK, including their share holders it seems - just see their way below par share price performance..