Wireless multimedia: panacea or reality

Summary form only given. This talk will try to identify the challenges that face the wireless multimedia services deployment. Attempt will be made to provide a pragmatic view to addressing these challenges without ignoring the industry reality. The important issues in the talk include (1) evolution vs. revolution, (2) disconnect between wireless voice and data services, (3) wireless cost per bit and its impact on wireless multimedia, (4) wireless links and its capacity, (5) transportation time to transport large files through wireless link and its impact on user acceptability, (6) how complex is the management of QoS in the wireless multimedia and what is reality, (7) what is the mobility direction of wireless multimedia, (8) wireless multimedia terminal: plug and play or single integrated, (9) multimode terminal, (10) terminal power, (11) content delivery and its format, (12) wireless spectrum licensed vs. unlicensed. This talk will not provide an answer to these questions, but it will help to stimulate the debate for our future research and innovations.