The annual GSM cellular industry blow-out in Barcelona won't be quite the party it has been in recent years. The deepening has cut into global smartphone sales and adoption of all those optional fee-based infotainment services the industry has been touting. And it could slow down cellco investments in 3G and just-emerging 4G wireless infrastructure and services.

"Most operators we speak to are trying in 2009 to add more value to existing voice and [SMS] messaging services, rather than providing location-based services, mobile wallet, presence-enabled address book and so on," says Luke Thomas, a program manager with Frost & Sullivan's information and communications technology group. "Before they start providing high bandwidth-consuming data applications, they must upgrade their backhaul networks to support next-generation, value-added data services."

Expect more words at the event about Long-Term Evolution (LTE), the cellular industry's 4G framework. But don't figure on much beyond words.

Wireless CTO Dick Lynch in his keynote address is expected to reiterate the company's promise to have live in the 700 MHZ band in at least one U.S. market by year-end, and reveal the infrastructure vendors that Verizon will use to do so. 

But that token deployment won't change the expected LTE schedule: limited rollouts in 2010, and larger-scale deployments the following year. Wireless consultant Andrew Seybold recently that speed alone won't be enough to push LTE adoption. Users want applications that make sense for small-screen mobile devices, and carriers will face new management challenges if LTE cell sites serve both fixed and mobile users.