CTIA to Hold Only One Big Annual Show Starting Next Year
Starting in 2014, CTIA will no longer hold its spring show, the largest of the year for the association, consolidating that show with MobileCON, its fall show, into a single “super mobility week” Sept. 9-11 in Las Vegas, it said Wednesday. That scheduling decision puts the CTIA show in direct conflict with the schedule of one of its biggest rivals, the Competitive Carriers Association, which is slated to meet the same week in Las Vegas.
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CCA, which represents most CTIA members, previously scheduled its 2014 fall meeting, its biggest of the year, for Sept. 9-12 at the Cosmopolitan (http://xrl.us/bn8wxr). The CTIA show will take place at the Sands Convention Center, on another section of the Vegas Strip. The CCA show is a much smaller show, but the group, formerly the Rural Cellular Association, now includes two of CTIA’s four biggest members -- Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile.
"It is very disappointing that CTIA has chosen to move its 2014 trade show to the exact same dates and location of CCA’s 2014 Annual Convention,” CCA President Steve Berry said Wednesday. Berry was formerly the top lobbyist for CTIA. “CCA’s 2014 Convention dates have been confirmed and public for two years, and it is hard to see how this is helpful to the industry, the competitive mobile ecosystem, and ultimately consumers,” he said. “CCA’s membership has grown significantly over the past few years, and our association has made great strides in the policy arena for competitive carriers. AT&T and Verizon -- two of CTIA’s largest carrier members -- are not interested in promoting a healthy, competitive wireless industry, and it would come as no surprise if this is an attempt to suppress competitive carriers to ensure their duopoly status."
"It is either an incredible coincidence that CTIA scheduled an event 20 months from now on top of CCA’s Annual Convention, or it is CTIA finally admitting, like its two largest members, that it cannot beat its competition on the merits,” said Eric Graham, vice president of C Spire, an active member of the CCA. “In our duopoly-dominated wireless industry, there are no coincidences. I am embarrassed for CTIA with this decision, but I am not surprised because it is rooted in the same mentality that drove C Spire to leave that organization three years ago. Now that CTIA has adopted AT&T and Verizon’s tactics, everyone should accept that the three are actually one in the same, despite whatever small carrier window-dressing they dream up to present to the public."
"Due to the size of the CTIA show there are very few venues that are able to accommodate the event. CTIA chose our 2014 dates by working with our members, exhibitors and the Las Vegas Sands Expo Convention Center,” said Rob Mesirow, CTIA vice president and show director, in response. “This date was coordinated very carefully with our partners, which we will be announcing over the next few weeks and months."
The decision to consolidate CTIA’s shows into a single super show follows two years of focus groups, polling and other research, Mesirow said in an earlier interview. The show will take place in Las Vegas “for the next several years,” he said. “Will it stay in Las Vegas for eternity? We haven’t had those discussions yet.”
Industry observers said they believe CTIA is making the move in part because of all the announcements carriers are already making at CES and at the Mobile World Congress held in February in Barcelona, Spain. “There is no center of gravity in the second half of the year,” Mesirow said. “The first half of the year is very crowded and there’s a lot of fragmentation in the second half of the year. ... There needs to be a platform for announcements, not only for the second half of the year but also for holidays.” Mesirow said he does not view CES as its main competitor. “CES is very big, but it’s not really mobile focused,” he said. “We're a pure play wireless show. That’s our business.” CEA did not comment by our deadline.
Mesirow said in another important development, starting in 2013, CTIA is adding a new zone for Apple extension devices at its show, offering 20,000 square feet of space on the show floor. “It sold out in about three days, so that’s a big, big new area for the show,” he said. Mesirow also said the show will have a strong focus on regulatory issues. “I've got to tell you, in the 14 years that I've been producing the show it’s more important than ever,” he said. Regulation “is unavoidable, particularly around spectrum. A lot of the new products and services that are coming out are very spectrum dependent and it’s the policy aspects of the wireless industry that are driving the business aspects.”