Canada Gets the Cold Shoulder by Voice Apps

A few years ago I was mesmerized by the idea of Grandcentral coming to Canada, but then all went quiet… Shortly thereafter, Grandcentral was purchased by Google, and boy! For sure they will expand to Canada now!

Grandcentral became Google Voice, and in the past few months Google Voice has come back into the limelight, but still no love for Canada.

Skype could have been a contender, with its SkypeOut capabilities. Still, no maple leafs for Skype.

Why are global providers deciding to leave Canada on the backburner? We can blame the recession for a certain amount of hesitation on the lack of movement, but the biggest trick is that it’s expensive to open up a *free* voice service in Canada. Even if there’s a monthy service fee, our carriers aren’t yet really ready to push IP to the PSTN. Carriers aren’t all that keen to give away market share at rock bottom prices, and for Google or Skype to try and build their own networks, the geography and addressable market for the service isn’t all that lucrative.

Canadians interested in next gen voice apps are going to have to sit tight, consider a foreign phone number, or even a change of address. ;-)

It’s not going to be until the CRTC changes foreign ownership and competitive influences that there will be changes driven into the way technologies are delivered to the consumer. It’s an eventuality, perhaps even in my lifetime.

3 Month Hiatus

For the past 3 months, I haven’t had the itch to write much of anything. It’s been a surreal three months; dealing with the illness of a family member that resulted in a funeral.

My mum was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, and almost to the date prognosticated by her oncologist, she passed away. At some point, I may delve into the back story, but for now, I’m just pleased that I feel like writing again.

I’m also pleasantly surprised that I’m starting to toy with technical ideas, and am hoping that these ideas will flesh themselves out here. Now the trick is to woo the masses again ;-)