LAS VEGAS -- A range of different wireless technologies and available spectra ostensibly provide fertile ground for independent telcos, but navigating those changing technologies and the business cases surrounding them is no easy task, panelists said at Telephony magazine’s INSIGHTS event for next-generation incumbent carriers.

“Phone companies of all sizes have got to find a way to replace lost revenue,” said Kermit Ross, founder of Millennium Marketing. “WiMAX has a lot of potential to be the quickest, easiest, cheapest way to do it.”

He also pointed out that, by his rough count, about 60 of the entities that purchased spectrum in the FCC’s 700 MHz and AWS auctions were independent telcos. And he hailed WiMAX as a technology with a lot of potential for ILECs.

But another panelist, Vanu Bose, president and CEO of Vanu, Inc., argued that independent telcos can’t operate in a vacuum, and that spectrum alone won’t support a wireless service. Rather it takes an entire ecosystem of handsets and consumer devices to support the service. For that reason, independent telcos are often forced to follow the path of major carriers.

“If anyone owns 700 MHz spectrum and is thinking of doing something other than LTE, with all due respect, I think you’re nuts,” Vanu said. “You’d be going off on your own.”

At the same time, he said, “Don’t forget: Despite all the hype, LTE doesn’t exist yet. Vendors I talk to expect to have products in 2010. But major carriers say they’re not planning on it being real until 2012. It’s easier to get excited about the new thing that you haven’t seen problems with yet.”