In Jay Kitchen's 23 years with the Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA), he's seen some dramatic changes in the very nature of wireless communication.

"When I started here, the majority of traffic on RF was voice, with a small amount of device telemetry being transmitted. In the last couple of years, we've seen the shift to where data predominates the RF traffic. We're at the point now where voice is digitized, into a series of binary transmissions, and it's all about data," Kitchens said.

Kitchens' vision of the wireless future is taking form in the present tense, not a hazy crystal ball prediction.

"We're seeing the transition right now, from where wired access to data is the norm and wireless is a small portion of that equation, to just the opposite where there's only a small wired portion. I think there will always be a wired portion of the equation -- where you're transferring data between Cray Supercomuter to Cray Supercomputer, and using fiber for that large transition of data -- but the majority of the market will be 100 percent portable," Kitchen said.

While Europe and the Asia-Pacific region have been quick to embrace wireless technology, Kitchens says that the growth of the American market will eventually surpass those numbers.

"What you have to look at is the factors that fueled [the quick adoption] in Europe and Asia. In many of those countries, you don't have the adequate land-line capabilities to get good connectivity, so of course the wireless model would be a better fit. However, the market in America will come around once the services become available to the public."

As the market has changed, the challenges to the industry changed as well.

"There are still many battles left to fight," Kitchen said. "One of the biggest hurdles to wireless development is taxation and federal legislation. Now, there are positive things happening between the industry and the government -- Congress is passing a law to eliminate the Three Percent Excise Tax on carriers, which I believe has been on the books since World War II.

"However, there are always pressures on legislators to find new sources of revenue for the government, and the wireless industry is one of the new popular targets. The industry is growing and new. We're just saying, 'Don't stymie that growth.'"