By Tara Seals

Something to mull in Miami, because wireless broadband has become so wedded to the future of IP: Can IP fulfill its destiny without wireless? Can wireless advance without IP?

The conversations around mobile and wireless technology at the VON Conference & Expo begin with the fact that the thirst for wireless data applications shows no sign of being slaked. And that shines a bright spotlight on network, management and backhaul requirements. Sure, 3G is fast enough to support widgetized fun, but it’s getting faster (21mbps, anyone?). It’s also becoming more widely deployed. In tandem, 4G is rolling out, and its purveyors promise the same speeds as one would get at home with cable modem or DSL. But ensuring real quality in the user experience is the game to play, speedy average connection or no.

Speaking at last week’s 4G World, Kris Rinne, senior vice president of architecture and planning at AT&T Inc., warned attendees not to underestimate the challenges of implementing 4G technologies, especially LTE. In fact, it has already reached a tipping point for mobile broadband, she said; certainly AT&T itself has suffered enough bad press coverage over its 3G network performance problems, which she noted they were actively working on with millions slated for investment.

For instance, in the last 12 quarters, mobile data usage on the AT&T network has grown by 4932 percent. That stems “not just from the iPhone,” she said, which people often use over Wi-Fi as well as 3G. The sale of PC cards has exploded during this time frame, mobile e-mail has gone mass market, and there is the more recent netbook phenomenon as well as machine-to-machine, telemetry and smart grid types of applications to consider.

So what happens when we get to 4G? That’s an important question considering the changes in the wireless business model that companies like Clearwire Corp. are trying to make.

VON will also be a font of discussion on those staggering changes. The idea is to bolster an open Internet, accessible over big wireless broadband pipes by a universe of consumer electronics devices, which are not carrier-branded but are rather sold at the Best Buys of the world. Services – all in the cloud, IP-based and mashable – will come from a vast ecosystem of software developers that write for various platforms and devices.

Network operators will provide additional value with customer information, location, presence, security, federated subscriber identities, bandwidth management and other network-centric capabilities. Everyone will make money. End users will rejoice. That is, if the aforementioned network and bandwidth management challenges are adequately addressed.

And they should be addressed soon. Unsurprisingly, new Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow is one that sees the real promise of smartphones and connected gadgets as lying in 4G, recently demonstrating his point with a video clip showing two iPhones – one connected to AT&T and one doctored up with a Clearwire router – running streaming video. You can guess which experience was of higher quality. The Clearwire-connected iPhone was running video with no lags or waits – making it very similar to, well, watching content at home on TV.

“Are we really enabling the full power of the mobile Internet if we’re restricting ourselves to the 3G network?” Morrow asked.

Instant access to the Web might be one thing, but Morrow’s demonstration showed that the biggest disruption to come from 4G might lie in mobile video. When you have a network that can support real mobile video – not the choppy 3G video we put up with today, with its long buffering times – it permanently changes the outlook for that service because the experience becomes an enjoyable one for end users. And it makes it much more attractive for manufacturers to build video-enabled consumer electronics. Which in turn drives more usage and new business models for broadcasters and mobile operators alike, who can craft interesting and compelling service packages (like three-screen bundles that allow subscribers to pull down their content wherever they are, to television, PC or mobile device), and advertising strategies.

Some are exploring the frontier already: Comcast Corp. announced last week that it would examine the idea of pushing its television content to smartphones and other connected devices. It will of course be doing that over 4G, as an MVNO for the Clearwire network. And it will essentially be a guinea pig for the future of mobile video.

It should be noted that filmmaker David Lynch recently blasted the idea of watching one of his densely layered and visually stunning films on a small handheld. Which makes sense. End users will likely feel the same. However, why not wireless televisions, portable, rollable plastic pixel screens and other form factors that are purpose-built for long-form content?

A lot of what’s been talked about surrounds the consumer proposition. But IP’s business future revolves around wireless too. Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner said last year that there might someday be a world where there is no such thing as native software running on business machines or on in-house servers. That’s bad news for the likes of Microsoft Corp., but great news for the Google Inc.s out there. And sure, there’s likely to be gun-shy IT departments that don’t like the idea of desktop software being reduced to a series of widgets that fetch needed information from the cloud on-demand. But there might be fewer of those than you think, particularly as true wireless broadband changes where, when and with what devices people work.

The bottom line? Mobile and wireless will be critical topics this week at VON, for what they do for IP services. The future is now, indeed.