A playful idea of a vision for the future.

Perhaps what we have today has run its course – physical cables (copper telephone wires), running into our houses, connected to a ‘hub’ that provides ‘broadband’ ‘wifi’ access to the ‘internet’ on a monthly subscription.  It might seem at first glance that the natural next generation will be to upgrade this to the newer, faster, ‘broader’, technology – a physcial fibre optic cable network for example.

Well the second side of the supply coin of data transport today is what we think of as mobile phone/smart phone technology – 3G, 4G and presumably 5G.

From a data storage and management point of view, we are seeing rapid development of ‘cloud’ technology, where you may access any piece of information – a TV program, an application, a game, a letter you wrote, an email you sent and so on – from super-servers based all over the world, accessed martini style – by any device, anywhere, at any time.

Today, the combination of, let’s say 3G and Wifi Home Hub, allow the customer to make use of this early, but burgeoning technology and concept.

Let’s argue that the natural extension of this scenario is a ‘super cloud’ or Universal Cloud (UC) that has Universal Access (UA).  The Universal Access will mean a coming together of current offerings of wireless communications technologies – the hub we have at home providing what we understand of as ‘Wifi’ today plus 3G/4G/5G.

The inconvenience of a physical cable (be it fibre optic or copper) running into our houses will be replaced with a model of blanket wireless availability delivered directly to any device we may operate, wherever we may be and at any time.  This service may be charged by subscription or pay as you go depending upon the amount of data/information you wish to access in the Universal Cloud.  You may also pay a rental fee for ‘storage space’ in the Universal Cloud.

In this model it follows that companies like IBM/Apple and BT/AT&T will naturally merge to form ‘Universal Information Corporations.’  There will be two types of job – working on the development and maintenance of the Universal Cloud (great big servers dotted all over the world) or likewise on the Universal Access.

For this vision to become a reality, then as I understand it the limitations of the wireless spectrum (as we know it today) will have to be overcome, perhaps in the short term by a ration by price model.

To sound a little off-the-wall, the longer term vision may be that one device having Universal Access directly to the Universal Cloud will be our brains – after all our brain is only a set of electrical impulses that are switched on or off, operating on a (currently unknown) frequency – creating literally a font of universal knowledge.

Anyway, I’m still young enough to dream and get excited by such things, and just some food for thought…