The concept of a network of smart devices was recorded more than 35 years ago when Carnegie Mellon University modified a Coke machine to report its inventory and the temperature of newly loaded drinks via an Internet connection¹.

In a recent blog post, my colleague spoke of mobile data consumption as a parallel to our Thanksgiving Day meal consumption. The latest reports from last week show that more than half of all online shopping was done from a mobile device on Thanksgiving, up 25% from last year according to the IBM annual Digital Analytics Benchmark.

Much has been written and a great amount of buzz generated regarding the ongoing rollouts of LTE; what hasn't garnered as much coverage are the issues that LTE presents to smaller carriers who will continue to operate 3G networks.