Telecom Trends

Scam the DNCL scammers

2009-07-03T06:49:00.002-04:00

Anyone else get extra telemarketing calls on the Canada Day holiday - from companies that probably knew more people would be at home?

Here is an idea to help stop unwanted calls from duct cleaners who are ignoring the do not call list.

Just say "yes" to the call centre. Don't provide any payment info. Schedule an appointment.

Have the crew show up and then turn them away at the door. After all, you couldn't have booked an appointment, because they couldn't have called you in the first place.

Increase their cost of doing business and maybe then they will get the message.

Update [July 3, 12:30 pm]
One of my legal advisors cautions against today's suggestions. As satisfying as this may seem, he warns that lawn care companies may do the service first and then hassle you for the rest of your life trying to collect. Others may hit you for a service call and again create a collection nightmare.

So, please be careful. Consider this to be the fine print warning on the ad.

Bad behaviour

2009-07-02T06:44:00.001-04:00

Next week, the CRTC's hearings into ISP network management practices opens.

Dave Caputo had a great set of animations to illustrate the challenges in operating a network that delivers fair usage to its subscribers.

The graphics used the highway metaphor for the 'net, but he described the impact of a truck that suddenly got to be four lanes wide, consuming all the capacity that was available to it.

The percentage of the total highway capacity that is used by the truck wasn't relevant; the issue was the behaviour of the truck that didn't restrict it to stick to its own lane. Adding more lanes wouldn't relieve congestion. It would simply allow the truck to expand even wider.

That is how peer-to-peer file transfer applications work. By design, they expand to consume all the capacity that is made available. The analyses that look at peer-to-peer as a percentage of total traffic tend to ignore the behaviour of the applications.

Technorati Tags:
net neutrality

Summer schedule begins this week

2009-07-01T06:36:00.000-04:00

Happy Canada Day! Summer schedule for this blog begins this week.

Blog traffic is already down a little as many of you start to enjoy some vacation time. I have set up my northern office. I'll continue to post a few times a week - and between time toiling at the keyboard and time on the water, if I happen to land that elusive pike, I'll provide a photo.

The challenge will be figuring out a connection between the picture and telecom policy.

Keep those cards and letters coming.

Germany supports satellite broadband

2009-06-30T06:29:00.000-04:00

The State of Brandenburg has announced that it will include satellite broadband services from Eutelsat as part of its "Broadband supply for rural areas" programme. The objective is to bridge the digital divide in the German state by the end of 2009.

Minister President Matthias Platzeck made the announcement last week at an information event on broadband:

The broadband initiative of the Government that aims to reduce to the minimum all remaining white spots once again demonstrates that no region or community in Brandenburg will be left behind.

As I have written many times before, in Canada, Barrett Xplore has continued to invest in bringing next generation satellite broadband services to complement the reach of its fixed wireless services in rural Canada.

Technorati Tags:
Barrett Xplore, satellite

2009 Hall of Fame inductees

2009-06-29T11:00:00.002-04:00

Canada's Telecom Hall of Fame has announced this year's laureates, to be inducted at its November 4 gala dinner in Ottawa.

This year's class includes 2 cable TV pioneers among the 5 individuals to be honoured.

Hall of Fame director Lorne Abugov said:

For a fifth straight year, we are proud and thrilled to shine a spotlight - this year more of a coastal beacon - on outstanding Canadian telecom achievers and achievements

The inductees are:

André Chagnon, the founder of Quebec cable giant, Vidéotron, not only propelled the company into international success but was also first brought interactivity to cable TV service in the early 1990s.
Israel (Sruki) Switzer is widely regarded as the most knowledgeable cable technology engineer Canada has produced, provided leadership and advocacy in the development of concepts and practices that advanced the cable television industry and inspired other great Canadian broadcast entrepreneurs.
Colin A. Franklin advanced Canada’s early global leadership in satellite communications as chief electrical engineer for Canada's first satellite programme, the Alouette 1.
Francis Fox helped pioneer the introduction of cellular wireless telephony in this country when he, as Minister of Communications, made the historic 1983 decision to issue cellular radiocommunication licences.
the late Donald A. Chisholm has been hailed as the 'Father of the Digital World', the Bell Northern Research digital switching initiative of the mid-1970s that ranks as one of the boldest and most successful technology advances in telecommunications technology of the 20th Century.

In addition, the Hall of Fame will recognize the two small coastal communities of Heart's Content, Newfoundland and Bamfield, British Columbia that for decades were Canada’s international telecommunications gateways to the world - the original landing sites of Canada’s first Atlantic and Pacific trans-oceanic submarine telegraph cables.

I encourage you to visit the Telecom Hall of Fame website and tour the virtual hall of fame. You can find additional background information about the laureates here.

Technorati Tags:
Telecom Hall of Fame

Much ado about anything?

2009-06-29T06:08:00.003-04:00

Some folks are apparently upset that Rogers is inserting an information frame onto the top of some users' web browsers. It is an added frame to let users know that their usage is bumping up close to the maximum under their plan or to let the user know that their old anti-virus software is about to expire.

How would you tell your customers that there is about to be a problem? With 1.6M internet subscribers, the alternative is to wait for tens of thousands of extra calls to the call centre after people get sticker shock from the extra usage charges or call technical support to find out why their free software isn't working.

It is hardly a case of interfering with the webpage. From what I have seen, the message is directly associated with important information about the customer's internet access service. Maybe the market research was correct that Rogers has found an acceptable and effective way to target those using its services?

Just like when the issue first arose in late 2007, this latest kerfuffle is much ado about nothing.

Consolidating the quintuple play

2009-06-26T06:34:00.001-04:00

In a move that helps consolidate its 5-service bundle offering in Manitoba, MTS Allstream and SaskTel have exchanged some of their security customers. SaskTel's SecureTek gave up its Manitoba customers in exchange for MTS Allstream's AAA Alarm customers located outside Manitoba - mainly in Alberta.

According to SaskTel CEO Robert Watson

This agreement will allow SecurTek to focus on geographic growth in its target growth markets of Saskatchewan, Ontario, B.C. and Alberta.

In my question to MTS Allstream chief Pierre Blouin last week at The Canadian Telecom Summit, I commented about the prairie phenomenon of home security services as an adjacency to telephone, TV, internet and mobile services. Other Canadian service providers have 4 arrows in their quiver. MTS Allstream and SaskTel carry a fifth.

This announced swap of customers helps MTS Allstream offer more bundling to more Manitoba customers while providing SaskTel with greater scale in its operations outside its core territory.

Why aren't more communications services providers offering home security?

Universal access to broadband

2009-06-25T06:43:00.000-04:00

Everyone in Canada has access to broadband internet access. This isn't a forecast; it is a statement of fact. Most Canadians have access to at least three different facilities-based broadband suppliers (cable, DSL and satellite) and many have a choice of fixed wireless as well.

In the next few months, most Canadians will have a choice of a number of mobile broadband suppliers, all of which providing even more choice. This array of competition doesn't include the companies that co-locate their DSLAMs to provide broadband over the telco loops or the companies that use the telco's aggregated access service to provide broadband alternatives.

All Canadians can have broadband, but what is holding them back?

According to StatsCan, in 2006, three quarters of Canadian homes had computers; more than 90% of those households used the computers to access the internet.

Obviously, presence of a home computer sets an asymptote for broadband subscription. We need to hear more discussion of basic computer literacy for the Canadians that still don't see the value of putting another screen in their homes.

As we wrote last November about PEI's low adoption rates despite universal accessibility, increasing broadband penetration requires a more holistic, critical analysis.

Polishing up for an Apple

2009-06-24T06:39:00.000-04:00

Toronto's urban WiFi has moved back into the news with the announcement that Cogeco Data Services' One Zone has come out with a $5 per month plan for iPhone and iPod Touch users, a substantial reduction from its $30 monthly rate for regular computer users.

The iPhone/iPod rate plan provides a significant breakthrough in pricing, recognizing the characteristics of the device and the likely types of data consumption. Will the new pricing threaten mobile data revenues or is it a substitute for some fixed broadband customers?

One Zone also announced that its footprint has joined the iPass network, which provides an alternative to 3G data roaming to iPass Mobile Office customers. Hundreds of Global 2000 companies use iPass and in 2008, over 2 million unique users took advantage of iPass mobility services.

Both announcements move Toronto's urban WiFi network back into the news.

Nortel executive retention plans

2009-06-23T06:52:00.003-04:00

There is a brief commentary on the National Post blogs by Kelly McParland, writing about executive compensation at Nortel through all of its angst.

The article is worth a read.

Since Nortel began it's disastrous fall from grace nine years ago, its CEOs have either retired wealthy, faced criminal charges or disappeared into the woodwork. None has managed to reverse the slide. Yet despite their uninterrupted record of miserable failure, they they all seem to get paid, and retain their unshakeable belief that people like themselves are essential, while everyone else is expandable.

And what about the board of directors, who acted on behalf of shareholders? Mark Evans and James Bagnall have more.

In the interests of disclosure, I had a Nortel pension coming to me - I was supposed to begin to receive $25 per month in September, 2017. And that was 25 real American dollars!

Technorati Tags:
Nortel

Wireless regulation

2009-06-22T06:27:00.000-04:00

The FCC is apparently going to take a look at carrier exclusive deals.

This, in a market with a lot of competition and service providers looking to differentiate themselves.

As the article says:

as much as I hate to say it, once the FCC recognizes that consumers continue to have choices, despite exclusive deals, the less likely they’ll be to intervene.

How much should regulators intervene in a competitive marketplace?

Technorati Tags:
FCC, wireless

Highs and lows

2009-06-19T06:30:00.002-04:00

My blog posts all week have focussed on The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit; can you blame me for not looking elsewhere for content? This posting may close off my coverage for 2009 and it will be a few months before I get around to promoting the 2010 event (June 7-9: registrations are open).

For the past week, about a dozen of us have been powered by caffein and adrenalin. The rush of registrations began Monday morning at 7 am and from Nadir Mohamed's opening keynote on Monday through to the new wireless entrant powerhouse panel that closed the conference on Wednesday, there was a terrific energy.

I found a number of special insights in nearly every one of the speakers' presentations. The anecdotes from Mike Lazaridis about his start - installing gear at Cantel with manuals not yet translated from Swedish - may have provided some encouragement for self confidence with our student delegates. There were messages from the leaders whose companies are no longer considered broadcasters, but are delivering content; the mobile commerce panel; the systems people; the debates conducted over smoothies, or WiFi Chai, or lattes or cocktails.

It was great to see the participation by non-traditional groups: leaders of smaller ISPs and communications service providers; students; innovative applications developers. The diversity of voices contributed to the broader understanding of the issues.

I am applying advanced communications technology for most of the next little while, escaping to my fortress of solitude to enjoy a different pace. Your cards, emails and phone calls are welcome. Thanks to Canada's nearly universal access to broadband internet, coupled with decent mobile coverage and some very cool wireline and VoIP technologies, the only reason you'll know that I am not at my office will be the sound of the waves lapping at my toes.

Using technology to get away from it all. I'll have to ponder that paradox.

Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit

Ending with a bang

2009-06-18T06:33:00.004-04:00

Paul Jay at CBC has a write-up on the closing session at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit, which featured the leadership of three of Canada's newest wireless carriers: Tony Lacavera of Globalive, Dave Dobbin of DAVE Wireless and Alek Krstajic of Public Mobile. The session was moderated by Simon Avery of the Globe and Mail who also wrote about the session. Story with photo in The Star and there is also coverage in the Post.

It was a well attended closing session. Playing to a full house, Alek let loose with a zinger during his opening remarks:

Take a look at the three of us up here...two of us will not be here at next year's telecom summit. Or we'll be here but have different business cards.

By the way, next year's event will be held June 7-9 in Toronto. Mark the dates in your calendar now; registrations are open!

You'll want to collect the new business cards.

Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit

Day 2 coverage of the Summit

2009-06-17T06:08:00.002-04:00

Coverage of The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit continued in the trade press [see here and here] although one of the news services seemed to have trouble getting the name of the event into their stories.

Tuesday had a number of sessions that looked at regulatory and policy types of issues - kicked off by a keynote speech by CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein and followed up by our annual regulatory blockbuster and a closing session on Net Neutrality.

The day started with a Canadian introduction of the Palm Pre, with lots of other content sandwiched in between.

Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit

2009 Canadian Telecom Summit - Day 2

2009-06-16T05:51:00.005-04:00

We had a great opening day, which featured more than half of the speakers, thanks to great concurrent sessions.

Lots of press coverage, including a Globe and Mail feature on our opening keynote, a Post story that covers RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis' address and Rogers' CEO Nadir Mohamed's comments, this Globe story about an Israeli firm that has acquired some of the Nortel assets, another Globe story about new mobile commerce technology announced at the conference, and coverage in the Star here and here.

Press coverage includes a special supplement [ pdf, 1.18MB] in today's Globe and Mail.

Update [June 22, 10:30 am]
Added link to Globe and Mail supplement [ pdf, 1.18MB].

Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit

Wireless is all about personalization

2009-06-15T22:45:00.002-04:00

Once again, Nadir Mohamed provided the opening keynote at The Canadian Telecom Summit on Monday.

As reported on Mobile Syrup, Nadir observed a key distinction between wireless and wireline communications:

It’s an important thing to reflect back. 25 years ago… 1985 when we launched wireless in Canada, the notion of wireless was very much about mobility. Wireless = Mobility. I suggest today that wireless has very little to do with mobility and everything to do with personalization.

More coverage of the opening day activities tomorrow.

Technorati Tags:
Rogers, Canadian Telecom Summit

Mobile Syrup on Mike Lazaridis

2009-06-15T22:39:00.003-04:00

Mobile syrup has coverage of the keynote address by Mike Lazaridis at The Canadian Telecom Summit, including some mobile video.

I'll find links for more press coverage of the first day of the event by tomorrow.

Update [June 24, 9:30 pm]
Link to cover story in Canadian Jewish News, June 25, 2009 edition.

Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit

Coverage of The Canadian Telecom Summit

2009-06-15T06:55:00.000-04:00

If you can't make it in person to The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit, which opens today, then be sure to watch for coverage from your favourite media outlet.

The Globe and Mail is our media partner for this year's event and it will have daily coverage.

CARTT will be providing delegates with daily conference newsletters and regular updates for its subscribers. And Tech Media Reports and FoxGroup Media will have coverage for its subscribers.

Mobile Syrup is planning to cover the event with live coverage and Mark Evans will be there, and we have conscripted him to moderate our panel looking at the Broadband Home.

If you have not yet registered, well... what are you waiting for?

Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit

The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit

2009-06-15T05:36:00.002-04:00

It's showtime!

The halls are set. The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit opens this morning at 7:00 am.

Hundreds of delegates have registered to hear from 79 speakers and to join with colleagues, clients and competitors for 3 days of schmoozing. The number of last minute registrations last week were both surprising and gratifying.

I will try to provide some updates throughout the event. Various media outlets will be providing coverage.

Watch this space for links.

Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit

Telecom's bad rap

2009-06-12T06:18:00.000-04:00

Interesting story in Xchange that speaks about the bad reputation that the telecom industry has in the eyes of the public.

The telecom segment is one of the least regarded, according to The Reputation Institute. The problem is blamed on a failure by operators to explain anything about themselves beyond the network and the services, which often disappoints.

The Managing Director of the Reputation Institute, Anthony Johndrow said:

People have very high expectation that the phone's going to work without bugs, that the infrastructure's there for conversations to be crystal clear, no dropped calls, and that the broadband’s going to be fast — none of which is true in wireless all or even most of the time. So it’s uncommon for people to be truly happy with service they get from their cell provider.

I found it interesting that this story is about US carriers, but ask the question about whether Canadian service providers would rank differently.

Are services so complex that they are bound to disappoint?

It is a subject worth exploring next week at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit, which opens on Monday.

Have you registered yet?

Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit

Canada's so-called communications crisis

2009-06-11T06:45:00.009-04:00

Two weeks ago, Michael Geist told the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications that "the Canadian telecommunications scene is in a state of crisis."

I just don't buy the doom and gloom portrayed in this testimony. It struck me as a conclusion based on statements that were well past their "best before" date.

Take for example the comments on the Blackberry in Canada:

Research In Motion has expressed frustration with Canadian pricing, predicting that carriers could sell eight or nine times more BlackBerrys if they lowered the data prices to levels found elsewhere.

People really need to be careful about old quotes like this. They are easily taken out of context.

Consider the fact that Canadians are already the world leaders in per capita ownership of Blackberrys. According to Jim Balsillie:

Canada was the birthplace of the BlackBerry platform and Canada continues to generate the highest per capita penetration of BlackBerry smartphones in the world today. We are fortunate to be located in a country with a thriving wireless industry that continues to offer businesspeople and consumers world-class wireless data services. RIM works with hundreds of carriers internationally and I am proud to say that the Canadian carriers and our collective success are well respected within the worldwide industry.

Great superlatives that go a little over the top. But at the core, it begs the question: if Canadian wireless data pricing is so out of whack, how are we leading the world in Blackberry penetration?

More stale dated material is found in the example of why we supposedly need new net neutrality laws. Once again, he pulled out the old TELUS union website blocking - an incident that happened 4 years ago and one that continues to serve as the poster-child for Canada's net neutrality movement.

Several years ago, TELUS blocked access to a union [sic] that was supporting a website during a labour dispute. In the process, it blocked more than 600 other websites.

I actually consider this example as clear evidence that no new net neutrality laws are required. Although there was no CRTC proceeding, the TELUS incident appears to have been a violation of Section 36 of the Telecom Act, even though TELUS eventually obtained court sanctions that forced the site to be taken down. Moreover, the carrier has been publicly criticized repeatedly, and they have made it clear they will not take such measures in the future.

The marketplace and current laws worked to resolve the issue pretty quickly.

As I pull out of my driveway each morning, I watch people run through the all-way stop sign in my neighbourhood. Do we need new traffic laws to stop that?

No new laws are needed; just enforcement of the existing one.

A crisis in communications? Hardly.

For a more complete perspective on the state of Canada's communications industry, you should attend The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit, which opens on Monday in Toronto.

Have you registered yet?

Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit

International trade at the Summit

2009-06-10T20:15:00.002-04:00

Following last year's success, the Israel Economic Mission is bringing a delegation of telecom companies from Israel to Canada to attend The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit, taking place next week at the Toronto Congress Centre.

The mission highlights Israel's cutting edge telecommunications solutions and is intended to help forge strategic partnerships between companies in the two countries.

The companies in the Israeli delegation offer new products & services in:

Fixed/Mobile Convergence Solutions Including WiFi & WiMAX
Service Delivery Platforms and Mobile Applications
Location Based Services
Software tools for mobile application testing
Broadband & Optical Networking Technologies
Network Management Cross-Platform media messaging systems
Intelligent application delivery solutions

As you know, Israel is regarded internationally as a center of product innovation and excellence in the field of Telecommunications. As such, it is a natural fit for companies which are positioned at the cutting edge of technological development.

If you have not yet registered, well... what are you waiting for? But whether or not you have registered for The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit, you should meet the visiting delegation. Check out the company list and book a meeting.

Technorati Tags:
Canadian Telecom Summit

MTS Allstream increases power by 1000%

2009-06-10T08:25:00.003-04:00

MTS Allstream has announced a deal with Sprint Nextel that gives it Sprint's handset lineups, vendor relationships and buying power.

The agreement also provides access to information about Sprint's technology, product development and planning which will assist in further developing its own wireless service offerings in Manitoba.

When long distance competition started in Canada in the early 1990's, US carrier agreements helped Canadian companies accelerate their development with these kinds of agreements. MTS Allstream has a strong position in its home market, but with less than half a million subscribers, it has less than one percent of Sprint Nextel's customers.

MTS Allstream CEO Pierre Blouin is speaking on Tuesday at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit next week. Consumer Markets division president Kelvin Shepherd will be participating on a panel on Wednesday looking at the Broadband Connected Home.

Have you registered yet?

Technorati Tags:
MTS Allstream, Pre, Canadian Telecom Summit

Undue preferential portals

2009-06-10T06:52:00.000-04:00

Can a portal operator discriminate and provide a preference to display in-house content instead of material available from other suppliers?

That seems to be a question arising from last week's new media decision by the CRTC.

During the proceeding, a number of content providers, including Pelmorex (The Weather Channel) argued

that despite new media’s promise of open access, there are gatekeepers in the new media environment with the power to give certain content providers preferred access to their platforms and customer base. During the Proceeding, this issue was most frequently discussed with respect to wireless carriers that offer walled garden mobile entertainment packages.

So the CRTC determined that the imposition of an undue preference provision would be appropriate for mobile portals.

Despite assurances from the wireless industry that walled gardens are being replaced with open Internet access, the Commission notes that closed services are the norm in advance of greater mainstream adoption of more sophisticated devices. As such, the process of selecting content for those services must not subject unaffiliated programming undertakings to undue disadvantage with respect to reaching mobile audiences.

What are the implications for mobile operators?

More points of discussion for The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit, opening Monday in Toronto. Have you registered yet?

Technorati Tags:
new media, Canadian Telecom Summit

AT&T's 5-year universal broadband target

2009-06-09T07:11:00.005-04:00

100%

In a filing to the Federal Communications Commission released late on Monday, AT&T set a target for 100 percent broadband availability in the United States by 2014.

Included in the plan are some points that caught my eye, including a recognition that work needs to be done on the demand side.

of those that do have access, nearly half of them do not purchase it for a range of reasons, including lack of necessary Internet-enabled devices, affordability issues and relevancy. While setting a goal of achieving universal access should be part of a comprehensive national broadband strategy, an inclusive approach must emphasize the critical importance of increasing broadband adoption.

To address the demand side, the plan includes a call for providing training and public access to broadband services; economic assistance for the acquisition of broadband services and equipment; and incentives for the development of technology and content aimed at specific users' needs.

More details are expected to be released on AT&T's Public Policy website.

Building Broadband, is the topic of a special panel at next week's The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit.

Have you registered yet?

Technorati Tags:
AT&T, broadband