Smartphones, CRTC and Foreign Ownership

This weekend there was an interesting article in the Globe and Mail about smartphones driving Canadian wireless data usage. The article then dove into the black hole of spectrum auctions in 2012.

The article was speculative, but laid out various tidbits related to the 700 Mhz auction planned in the coming months to increase wireless data capabilitities. 

As innocuous as the article was, there were two pages of comments from the great unwashed masses complaining about the Canadian wireless industry and urging the government action a handfull of idiotic activities to *support the Canadian public*. It never ceases to amaze me how uninformed and short sighted the general public is. (I can’t even read comments on the CBC site any more)

Foreign Ownership: Yes, a little foreign ownership is good, and the CRTC has made some innovative recommendations regarding the opening up of ownership regulations. The expectation is that if a Canadian company has less than 10% marketshare, they may be capable of obtaining foreign ownership greater than 50% . This would apply to all the new wireless startups, Allstream, (mostly) regionalized players like Cogeco, Distributel, Primus Canada, and Xplorenet to name a few….

Foreign ownership of the Big 3 is a BAD thing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Canadian Telecom industry now employs over half a million Canadians. 

Canada’s telecommunications industry makes up 3.3 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, generating $40-billion of revenue annually.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize all that great Canadian goodness will disappear in a heartbeat if the Canadian government opens the flood gates for foreign ownership, with no terms and conditions. 

People want unlimited voice and data plans for less than $40/month. My question to that: is it worth that much to you, that the end result is 2-3 friends and family members being laid off because their job is now redundant to someone working for (insert US/Global Carrier Name here) in a call centre around the world? 

Of the two pages of commentary, there were 2 intelligent posts: 

• Discussion of reasonable and worthwhile changes to the current offers (per second billing is a smart suggestion)
• The idea of a nationalized network backbone is creative (but I don’t know if Canada is smart enough to organize an initiative of that magnitude, we can’t even really figure out how to reasonably use the Deferral Account)

The rest of the garbage made my head hurt thinking that these people somehow survived their adolescence and are now pro-creating.

I’m looking forward to the next few years and the evolution of the Canadian Wireless/Communications Industry:

• deeper national penetration of services and providers
• new handsets that allow for more ubiquitous applications
• Canadian innovations

What do you want for the future of Canadian telecommunications?

Foursquare: My *Most Used* iPhone App

With regularity, I am asked which app is my fave on the iPhone. Without hesitation, I respond with *Foursquare*.

I’m a Check-In freak. Restaurants, gas stations, people’s houses, towns…. you name it. It’s better than Facebook Places, and already retailers are getting on board with providing discounts for people who check into their establishments. It’s quite possibly the best location-based social app.

I love that I can check out the specials near me, and that even drives me to stop in at places I wasn’t expecting to stop at.

Sure, it’s handy for social planning, but its niche will be in retailer advertising, not in helping you meet up with peeps.

I love that I can control the privacy features with better granularity than FB Places. Because, really, some things just aren’t for all eyes :-D

Foursquare: not just for iPhone users, it’s available on all platforms. You need it. The more people checking in, the faster retailers will launch service discounts for Foursquare users. Giddy up!!

Now if only it had better camera controls ;-)

Someone Else is Making Millions in Vegas

And it’s not me… ;-)

But whilst in the land of sun and sin and whatnot, it was pretty obvious that there was money being made, and not only at the gambling tables.

Every 3rd person on the street was on a cell phone, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t locals.  I started imagining all the roaming charges that were getting racked up…… there are a boatload of cell phone providers in Vegas.
But only 2-3 real carriers, the rest are MVNOs….. all those roaming charges falling into 3 real buckets. Mmmmm. Not to mention juicy data transfer charges.

I can’t wait to see the roaming fees on the Wiz’s cell phone…

If you can’t win at the roulette tables, setting up a cell phone service in Vegas will make you money just as fast!


Technorati Tags: Vegas, Cell Phone Roaming Charges

The Loud and Angry Voices of Wireless Users in Canada

What started off as as whisper is now turning into a dull roar about the cost of Canadian cell phone service.  Mark Goldberg has been kicking the ball around for a while, but now there are a slew ot teammates to take a pass.
Ryan at BlogTO
Jay at Radiant Core
Jeremy Latham
Sam Lu at GoSammy

These guys all seem to be relating to an article written by Thomas Purves which compares Canadian wireless services to that of a 3rd world country. That may be a pretty bold statement, intended to entice exactly the kind of reaction that is being received.  He’s got some great stats about the cost of using wireless data transfer. His call to arms just may entice the quiet, Canadian public to ruffle feathers with their wireless providers. I would imagine that this sort of stir is going to cause some stress to folks who measure mobile ARPU (average revenue per user)… i can hear the sound of Mobile Golden Egg cracking….

What’s next with wireless?  Well, if the stir over net neutrality is any indication……and data transfer is soon going to “clog up” the wireless networks, carriers will have to enforce “Quality of Service” levels, and applications will fall off the network.  You thought your cell phone bill was high last year?  Just wait till next year.  The huge marketing push over the past few years to increase data use is going to blow up, when carriers realize people are sending silly UTUBE videos to each other’s cell phones.

Technorati Tags: Canadian Cellular Service, wireless, Thomas Purves, net neutrality, Canada, UTUBE

The Rogers VISION

I wish I had some indepth witty details, a good scoop, or even gossip. But Mark tells it all, and there isn’t all that much to tell yet, unless you want to read the press release. William Shatner helped launch Rogers’ New VISION…. Live Video on cell phones, (aka mobile video calling services) and yes, that includes video calls from your cell.  The Man of Silver has more details, and even a snappy photo of Capt’n Kirk in a demo. Check the Rogers’ site for their launch info…

I mentioned it to someone a few minutes ago, and their first question: how the heck are you going to hold the phone to your ear, and not get a close up of your eardrums?

It’s not an unreasonable question… :-)



Technorati Tags: Rogers VISION, William Shatner, Mobile Video Calling