About the talk:
Since the dawn of radio, spectrum has been the most precious and preciously guarded communications commodity. Trillions of dollars in market value have been created (and lost!) through spectrum ownership, and spectral monopolies have strongly influenced and constrained technology choices and information flow. Now, all of this is changing. Moore's law has finally caught up to wireless, making emerging radio technologies so powerful that, although it seems counter-intuitive, most communication applications will be much more easily satisfied by unregulated spectrum than by traditional spectral grants.
This talk will explore why the scarcity of spectrum has worked against innovation, what's happening to make effective spectrum plentiful, and what this trend and its effects mean to the evolution of wireless technologies and businesses. In particular, the talk will focus on how smart IC and software developers and service providers can transfer much of the economic value now tied up in spectrum monopolies to far more meritorious enterprises.
About the speaker:
Andy Rappaport is a partner at August Capital, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Before joining August 7 years ago, he was founder and president of The Technology Research Group, where he provided strategic counsel to many of the largest semiconductor, computer, and communications companies worldwide. Andy has written and lectured extensively on the effects of emerging technologies on mature markets. In 1991, wrote "The Computerless Computer Company", which was named Article of the Year in the Harvard Business Review and made him persona-non-grata in many boardrooms in Silicon Valley. Before becoming a full-time venture capitalist, Andy helped establish a number of influential technology companies including Actel, MMC Networks, and Transmeta. He now sits on the boards of a half dozen semiconductor companies, including Atheros Communications and Silicon Image.
Contact information:
Andy Rappaport
August Capital