It's not often, and most particularly lately, that we can find anything to laugh about in the telecom industry but this column in America's Network had me both laughing and nodding my head in agreement at the same time.

Whenever I need the release of laughter, I always turn to the writings of telecom pundits such as Ira Brodsky and George Gilder. If they can make a good living with analysis that almost always favors the triumph of credulous hope over rigor, then there’s hope for the rest of us.

Brodsky, wireless author and president of Datacomm Research, last came to notice when he urged the US forces in Iraq to tender new licenses for CDMA over GSM. Sure, Ira admits GSM has got roaming advantages. “No problemo”, as the next Californian governor might say. “Dual-mode CDMA/GSM handsets would satisfy Iraqi demand for roaming to neighboring countries as readily as a GSM network. Visitors could rent CDMA handsets”, he wrote.

So, as I queue for hours in Baghdad Airport to collect my rental, what could I altruistically muse upon as the virtue of Iraqi CDMA? “More Iraqis would benefit from CDMA2000’s superior rural coverage, high-speed data, and GPS locating,” he wrote. Of course! A country with 1% teledensity is just raring to go with MMS, camera phones and MP3 transfers. The GPS locational facility could be good, though. You know, if my hire car was bailed up by bandits, or I was accidentally shot at by nervous US marines, they could retrieve the rental phone! ..... read the full article