Cellphone providers look for opportunities in wireless Net

Wireless phone providers are about to broaden the reach of their broadband services and give them a big bump in speed as they salivate over opportunities to connect everything from multimedia smartphones to dog collars.

"You'll see new categories of (mobile Internet) entertainment and multimedia devices that aren't (conventional) phones," Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said at the CTIA Wireless convention here. "It will change the way we think of wireless." The industry is hungry for opportunities: Now that just about anyone who wants a cellphone has one, wireless service providers are "facing very difficult times due to slowing growth," says Dan Hays, director of telecom at management consulting firm PRTM. "That's putting a pressure on profits." But executives are on a high after watching consumers spend $41 billion last year on wireless Internet, up 28% from 2008. To keep that going, this week many of the industry's giants announced plans for next-generation networks or phones. Although they're using several different technologies, nearly all of the upgrades are being marketed as fourth-generation, or 4G, improvements.