B2B Series: Wireless Standards

What this episode covers

Jay Goldberg traces the history of wireless standards, starting with the WWII origins of frequency hopping by actress Hedy Lamarr and engineer George Antheil. He details the 'standards wars' between GSM and Qualcomm's CDMA, explaining how Verizon's early adoption of CDMA allowed it to outcompete AT&T through superior network economics. Goldberg describes how Qualcomm leveraged its patent portfolio to dominate the 3G and 4G standards bodies, effectively ending the wars, and concludes by noting that 5G and 6G face diminishing returns as the industry runs out of easy spectral efficiency gains.