At CES 2010, everyone was excited about tethering their iPhone and Android smartphones to create WiFi hotspots through the 3G connection with various devices; however, if AT&T couldn’t even keep the 3G network working well at CES 2010 when they had a year’s worth of notice, how do you expect networks to be stable with new devices on the horizon? Which brings us to another trend that we noticed – the proliferation of smartphones and other network connected mobile devices. It was obvious at the show floor that mobile is today what PCs were to the technology industry 15 years ago. Everyone will have a network connected mobile device in the not too distant future with respective data plans that will create a mess out of the carriers.

Verizon is excited to be the most stable 3G provider currently, but they have no idea what’s about to hit them. Call it AT&T’s misfortune where they got to experience the overload issues first, but T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint aren’t far behind. If anything, others shouldn’t mock AT&T, but take what they are going through seriously and prep up for the upcoming demand in mobile usage. What we have till now is nothing compared to the rush of network utilization that’s expected in the next 3-5 years. The mobile Web will grow by leaps and bounds and carriers are clueless and too busy mocking each other with petty advertising campaigns.  Get to it, guys, you don’t have a lot of time left.