The debates surrounding online privacy have been numerous in recent months with watchdogs and industry experts investigating ways to improve and monitor the issue.

In the latest twist, a report by the Privacy Commissioner has slammed the current privacy laws that are in place to protect individuals.

During the unveiling of the results, Commissioner Jennifer Stoddard felt that the regulations were outdated and weren’t prepared to deal with access to the Internet from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

There has been a lot of talk about refreshing online privacy regulations as more and more Canadians are using whatever device possible to access the Internet in their daily lives.

One of the biggest concerns that emerged from the report was that there wasn’t any serious punishment for those who were guilty of breaching privacy regulations.

At the moment, most offenders can only be name and shamed and receive a slap on the wrist for most breaches of online privacy. However, this could be set to change with plans now being drawn up to fine anyone found guilty of breaching privacy regulations.

On top of that, the Privacy Commissioner would also be given new powers which would allow them to directly enforce legal orders on offending parties rather than having to go through the Federal Court to create an order.

The concerns come as more and more people are using the Internet in their daily lives where they are placing an increasing amount of information online.

Whilst this information is provided to companies by their customers, some companies have used their records illegally to try and advertise their products as much as they possibly can.

By letting companies use invasive methods to acquire and collate data, the report showed that Canada could fall behind other Western nations in improving online privacy.

Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddard was exceptionally damning about the current state of the laws when discussing the report at the Canada Privacy Symposium. During the conference, she said that “it is increasingly clear that the law is not up to the task of meeting the challenges of today – and certainly not those of tomorrow.”

With the Canadian government particularly focusing on the matter of online privacy, it seems that it’s just a matter of time before we see major changes being introduced that will benefit and protect consumers personal details no matter where they are stored on the web.

The rats have officially starting fleeing HTC’s sinking ship, as a torrential exodus of executives has left the Android partner reeling and the tech world asking serious questions about the company’s future. In fact things are apparently so bad at HTC that one fleeing executive took to Twitter, urging his fellow colleagues to likewise depart.

The latest to head for the hills is HTC Asia CEO Lennard Hoornik, who now becomes at least the sixth senior executive to leave the company in the last few weeks. Among the others is product manager Erin Lin, whose fears about the impending self-destruction of HTC motivated him to issue the tweet telling his compatriots to head for the escape pods.

Expectedly, the departure of so much high level leadership has left HTC in a chaotic mess, and it has many in the tech world wondering what sparked the mass exodus. While some point to recent changes instituted by the company’s new CMO Ben Ho, changes that included moving some strategic offices in Seattle back to the company’s headquarters in Taipei, as the reason behind the chaos, the more obvious cause is the spectacular failure of the company’s much ballyhooed HTC One Facebook phone.

The departure of one high level executive is often reason enough to worry, generating at least enough concern that many top businesses develop succession plans to ease the transitional chaos. But to lose an entire team of senior executives… well lets just say there’s no plan for that.

In addition to the aforementioned departures of Hoornik and Lin, over the past few weeks the company has lost chief product officer Kouji Kodera; VP of global communications Jason Gordon; global retail marketing manager Rebecca Rowland, and digital marketing director John Starkweather.

While some analysts remain optimistic that HTC still has plenty of high level talent, including new CMO Ben Ho, others point to Ho’s recent controversial decision to move strategic operations from the company’s offices in Seattle back to company headquarters in Taipei; a move, Michael Morgan, a senior analyst at ABI Research, explains, that may have been prompted by the saturation of the U.S. market and the possibilities of growth now available in China.

This strategic move likely serving as the last straw for the departing executives, the reason behind it seems to be the larger motivating factor: the spectacular failure of the HTC One Facebook phone. Introduced with substantial fanfare in April, the HTC One, as expected, never took hold in the global market, with AT&T already slashing the price of the phone from $99 to $0.99 on a two-year plan, with rumours that AT&T will remove the device from its catalogue completely in the near future.

While the phone never took hold, part of the reason was missteps from company CEO Peter Chou, who apparently insisted the company push forward with the release of the device despite warnings about manufacturing and supply delays…delays that likely hampered sales.

So there you have it: Strategic missteps leading to poor product performance, leading to knee jerk company changes, leading to the mass exodus of company leadership. The question now, of course, becomes, can HTC recover? The answer, likely not. In situations like this approximately one out of ten companies are able to rebuild, and with an unpopular product line and a dearth of the requisite visionary leadership needed to rebuild, this may be the end of the road for HTC.

Now where’s Google when you need them?

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

The demand for a mobile payment solution is apparently very high on Canadian soil. As two PayPal studies show — one released last year, and the second one recently — Canadians are ready to go cashless. In fact, there is a significant rise in the percentage of mobile users who are losing interest in their wallets.

Last year, a PayPal study found that more than 70% of Canadians are ready to drop cash and use digital payment instead. This number is up from 27% recorded in 2011.

This year, the number of Canadians ready to go cashless rose to 87%, according to the PayPal survey. What’s interesting though, is that it’s mostly the younger generation (aged between 18 and 24) who are ready to go cashless.

The unfortunate news is that Canadian businesses aren’t quite ready to receive payments through mobile phones, as the majority of those surveyed admitted that they couldn’t pay for purchases with their mobile phone.

But how does the mobile payments solutions stack up in Canada?

Of course, PayPal has its own solution for boosting Canadian mobile payments. Back in March 2012 they introduced PayPal Here, their foray into the mobile payment solution. The solution came with a simple flat rate of 2.7% for card swipes and PayPal payments.

Six months later, the partnership between Rogers and CIBC has borne its own fruit: the two launched their own NFC mobile payment solution, Rogers Suretap, which is a combination of an NFC SIM connected to the user’s CIBC Visa or MasterCard credit card account. PayPal was surprised to find that the companies claim they had the first mobile credit card transaction on Canadian soil.

Since then, another wireless player, Bell, has revealed its partnership with RBC to launch their own mobile payments solution to help kick start the Canadian mobile payment industry. According to their press release, the NFC-based payment solution will be available by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, a PayPal executive suggests that even Apple is eager to pave the way for mobile payments, as the next-generation iPhone will sport a fingerprint scanner, which will end the era of passwords.

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Written by: Istvan Fekete. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Trying desperately to avoid rejection by Clearwire shareholders, Sprint sweetened its offer to buy the 50 percent of the company it doesn’t already own on Tuesday, representing the company’s “best and final” offer according to CEO Dan Hesse. In an attempt to wrest shareholder interest away from competing offers from Dish Network and Verizon, Sprint raised its bid for full control over Clearwire to $3.40 a share, which values Sprint’s proposed new stake at $2.5 billion. This stands as a substantial increase over its original offer of $2.97 a share and 10 cents more a share than Dish’s competing bid.

This new bid highlights the resistance Sprint has faced over the past several months in its attempts at a full takeover of Clearwire, as while many shareholders were on board with Sprint’s initial offer, approximately half of the investors not named Sprint (24% overall) were unhappy with the deal, this revised bid offered before the Clearwire shareholder vote on Tuesday now serving as a tacit admission that Sprint knew its initial proposal was bound to fail.

While this sweetened deal unequivocally demonstrates Sprint’s commitment to Clearwire, or rather its desire for the latter’s spectrum assets, it still does little to clear up the ongoing Sprint/Dish Network saga, as not only is Dish Network competing with Sprint to purchase Clearwire, its competing with Japan’s Softbank to acquire Sprint as well!

“The revised offer demonstrates Sprint’s commitment to closing the Clearwire transaction and improving its competitive position in the U.S. wireless industry,” Sprint said in a statement, with CEO Dan Hesse adding that it was the company’s “best and final” offer and, “You can take that to the bank.”

In a statement released yesterday, 24 hours after the revised Sprint proposal, Clearwire said that Sprint’s new offer, “when compared with other potential transactions reasonably available to the company at this time, is the most favourable potential transaction to the company’s unaffiliated stockholders,” going on to recommend that shareholders vote to approve the new deal.

But it seems there are some dissidents still hoping for yet an even better deal, hedge fund company Crest Financial urged shareholders to reject this sweetened deal as still too low.  “Clearwire is acting in its usual stockholder-unfriendly way by adjourning the special meeting to grant Sprint the ability to pose a new, still inadequate offer,” David K. Schumacher, Crest’s general counsel, said in a statement. “Stockholders should demand that the Clearwire board finally act in the best interest of all shareholders, not just in the interest of Sprint.”

As mentioned, the battle over Clearwire is playing out under the shadow of the potential takeover of Sprint itself, with Japan’s Softbank competing against Dish Network for control over America’s third largest wireless service provider. With Sprint’s bid for Clearwire backed by a cash infusion from Softbank, yet with the former still considering the rival bid from Dish Network even as it fights its potential suitor for control of Clearwire, things are anything but clear in this soap opera drama, although all parties are optimistic that the quagmire will get cleared up in the next several weeks.

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Looking to boost the wireless signal coming into your home? Forget switching providers or upgrading your router, upgrade the windows in your home instead. Always looking for ways to incorporate our growing technological existence with, well, our real existence, Ericsson has come up with some ideas of how to make our windows do more for us. I mean, transparent rectangles of glass that let in light and offer a glimpse of the outside world…that’s so yesterday’s news.

At this week’s CTIA 2013, the annual trade show hosted by the so named international non-profit trade association representing the wireless industry, we’ve seen several interesting announcements, but to this point none more so in my mind than Ericsson’s prototype ‘smart windows.’

The exhibit, predictably titled “Windows of Opportunity,” showcases several research prototypes for these smart windows, one’s that incorporate antennae and other such signal boosting technology, in the hopes that others will be inspired to take up the mantle of building practical products that support our connected everything existence.

While I hate to admit it, we don’t live in an age of technological innovation, with most companies content to tweak existing products rather than think up new ones. Instead, one might call it the age of technological incorporation, as companies look for ways of changing the mundane everyday products of our lives into things that can support our growing technological existence…and there’s nothing more mundane, or ubiquitous, than windows.

“We looked at how we could use the most common element around us,” said Keith Shank, director of the Ericsson’s advanced technology labs, and with virtually every building in the world employing windows, updating windows with wireless technology seemed the most logical choice.

There’s no question that antenna-infused smart windows offer several opportunities to boost reception in buildings, homes, and even vehicles (particularly trains). One particular window Ericsson had on display was designed to trap cellular signals, ideal for increasing coverage in buildings and dead-spots. Further, consider how such technology might one day be employed on trains or airplanes, with each smartphone able to access its own wireless signal boosting window.

Beyond that, Ericsson demonstrated interesting touchscreen windows as well, turning that plain portal to the outside world into a futuristic control device, allowing the user to adjust lights, fans, and other home features with the touch or swipe of a finger.

While admittedly I don’t usually enjoy product reviews, there’s just something about the incorporation of technology into the mundane aspects of our lives that has always interested me, offering a glimpse into the real technological future that lies ahead of us. That said, this might all be a flight of fancy, as Ericsson, for its part, has no plans on getting into the window business, content to file the patents for such technology in the hope that the prototypes of today will inspire other companies to press on in developing our fully incorporated technological existence of tomorrow.

The Telus–Mobilicity deal was an interesting turn of events, but wasn’t unexpected. Reactions were mixed from both consumers and industry players, but WIND Mobile has grabbed the moment to boost the marketing campaign for its own services by attracting confused Mobilicity subscribers to its own network.

“Mobilicity clients, don’t sweat the future of your plans & services. Switch to WIND & receive up to $365 in savings,” posted WIND Mobile on Twitter. The link, inserted at the end of the tweet, opens a page created especially for Mobilicity customers, and it emphasizes the top five reasons to switch to WIND.

Fact is, WIND Mobile has a larger network than Mobilicity, although this argument will have no basis when the deal receives the green light from the Competition Bureau, Industry Canada, and Mobilicity’s debtholders. Also, by switching to WIND, customers will receive a free SIM card (valued at $25) and one month’s plan fees for free, which could mean up to $40 in savings.

The catch is that confused Mobilicity users, who maybe tempted by the $365 in savings, will get up to $300 in service credits only if they choose add-ons and extras, as the savings don’t apply to the monthly plans WIND offers.

As part of the wireless startup’s BYOD trend push, subscribers choosing WIND can save up to $300 if they pick up the $40/month plan, which includes unlimited data, Canada-wide talk, and global text. The other two plans, $30/month and $20/month, can bring $200 and $100 in savings, respectively.

The marketing push comes hot on the heels of some Mobilicity customers expressing concern over their low-cost plans. Telus, however, has said that Mobilicity’s “wireless service would continue without the risk of disruption”, and in an email sent to Mobilesyrup emphasized that they will continue with the Mobilicity brand, as well as its rate plans and network.

Mobilicity CEO, Steward Lyons, however, couldn’t resist replying to WIND’s marketing effort to increase its subscriber base, and pointed to the latter’s uncertain future in a tweet: “Really? Did you forget to mention your company is for sale? “@WINDmobile: #Mobilicity clients, don’t sweat the future of your plans & ser.”

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Written by: Istvan Fekete. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Back in February, the government dropped their plans to give the police greater powers to access personal information of internet users.

And it seems like it was a just decision as a new study by a government watchdog shows that the law would leave users open to having their details exposed and viewable online.

The study, carried out by the Privacy Commission, also found that whilst law enforcement officials would be able to view the information, it would leave browsers to having their information stole by unwanted hackers.

There has been an ongoing debate in recent years about online privacy and the safety of personal information that is submitted online.

Before the plans were launched, there was much uproar about the bill which means that police wouldn’t need a warrant to start viewing and collecting any information on suspects who they think might be involved in criminal activity.

It would’ve meant that the police would then be able to view more information such as e-mails, IP address and mobile number which would show who they are friends with and even their current physical location.

When investigating the new powers that would’ve been granted, the watchdog was able to access details and build up a rough picture of a suspect which would either confirm or deny any leads on the suspect.

By collecting the data with such ease, the watchdog were very damming of what powers police would’ve been given had everything been approved. In the report, the watchdog said that “As information technologies become more and more common in our lives, and the more they become an extension of our very selves, the more sensitive and revealing subscriber identification information becomes.”

The Canadian government have been involved in a lot of activity involving online privacy in recent weeks having also participated in an international initiative to help check and create new ways to improve cyber-security.

With the report compounding the fears of many opposed to the bill, it seems that Ottawa dropping the privacy bill was the right decision to make at the end of the day.

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Written by: Andrew Roach www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

There has been greater competition for frequency licenses in the last year or so as providers look to try and stake their claim on the wireless market.

However, wireless network manufacturer Redline Communications has revealed that it’s now possible for radios to switch between a variety of different frequencies thanks to a change in the components inside the device.

The Toronto based company has deigned it Ultra Wireless Transport (UWT) system to operate between 100MHz and 6GHz making it suitable for use on almost any platform or network.

There has been a battle between providers to secure licenses to operate on certain frequencies and provide broadband and wireless services to their competitors.

Redline has stated that the UWT was devised as an alteration to their RDL-3000 radios to help reduce its energy consumption and make it much more portable than previous incarnations.

However, the trick behind Redline’s newest innovation is that it can access both licensed and unlicensed frequencies giving users much more choice and flexibility about what they can access on the device.

But the communications company are not just looking to use the UWT technology on radios as they are aiming to move into the internet battle further down the line.

They believe that the technology could be beneficial to help rural communities get a high-speed internet connection or phone line further down the track.

This could happen in the not too distant future as Redline have now tweaked their devices to use digital signals rather than analogue making it possible for new devices to work on different frequencies and use other form of technology.

With the new capabilities, in means that the UWT will be able to pick up wireless speeds of up to 54mbps on a 12 MHz channel that has a range of 60km.

Redline’s new system has already been certified and approved by Industry Canada meaning that it might not be long before we see the devices hitting shop shelves. On top of that, if the UWT can regularly hit the speeds that Redline claims, it could be the gap needed to help bring rural towns and villages up to speed with modern tech that is already in abundance in major towns and cities.

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Written by: Andrew Roach www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

BlackBerry is aiming high by launching a new smartphone featuring the adored physical keyboard. The handset is expected to be a budget version of the BlackBerry 10, with a single goal: to regain global market share. The strategy is to gain traction in emerging markets, and Blackberry Q5 could be the right solution.

The low-cost smartphone will be available in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, in July. It is an essential move because the Q5 represents BlackBerry’s attempt to cater to emerging economies where they have a stronghold relative to the developed world, where rivals have swallowed its market share.

Its pricing is as yet unknown, but BlackBerry will certainly make sure it won’t price itself out of the market. However, it has to evaluate how the Q5 will play out in regions dominated by Google’s Android and cheap China offerings.

Of course, the launch is surrounded by vast speculation regarding its price. Some say the phones will sell for far less than the price tag for the Q10 line in North America, while others go as far as suggesting a $100 price, or at least close to it.

“The Q5 could be a very significant device for the company, as there is a significant opportunity for high-quality low-cost smartphones,” says Adam Leach, principal device and platforms analyst at Ovum.

Looking at the smartphone market, it is obvious that low-cost devices have benefitted Samsung’s global market share. As we can see from the most recent mobile market reports, Samsung controls the majority of Android devices, with great high-end smartphone sales (e.g. Galaxy smartphone line), but even higher mid-end and low-end smartphone sales.

Turns out even Apple is interested in entering the low-end market, as it is rumoured to be preparing a cheaper iPhone. While the initial thought of analysts was that the company is targeting the low-end market, we’ve heard whispers that Apple is, in fact, targeting the mid-end user with a possible $300 price tag. Now it remains to be seen what kind of pricing strategy the companies will choose.

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Written by: Istvan Fekete. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

The increasing public clamour around mobile privacy, particularly as it relates to the information accessed, stored, and shared by mobile applications, has finally reached the ears of those in Washington, as last week Rep. Hank Johnson, D-GA, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that demands application developers gain explicit consent from users before collecting their information. This bill would further require developers to provide secure storage of that information and inform users how long the data would be stored.

Now granted this isn’t the first response we’ve seen on the issue of mobile privacy from Washington, as earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission released its own report on the issue of mobile privacy, offering several recommendations for a framework designed around bolstering user control over personal data, but this latest bill at least shows the issue is finally being taken seriously.

With supporters in both parties one might think this much needed mobile privacy bill would have a relatively quick trip through the bureaucratic process, but it looks like timing, not content, will likely see it languish instead, as other more important divisive issues will likely dominate the political scene for months, if not years, to come, leaving mobile privacy simmering on the backburner.

There have been so many flagrant abuses of user privacy in the mobile space over the past several years that one simply cannot list them all, including high profile indiscretions from the likes of Apple, Google, and Facebook. Such repeated abuse of user privacy has sent public interest groups into a frenzy, with many privacy advocates urging Washington to step in and begin to lay down some ground rules in what is a relatively lawless mobile space.

While such proposed changes to mobile application development may have some developers wary of the future, there is perhaps not as much to worry about, as similar legislation is already on the books in several states.

“For those app developers that already disclose the purpose for collecting, using, sharing and storing personal data, and require consumer consent before collecting the data, the proposed legislation would not significantly change the way the app works,” Justine Phillips, attorney with McKenna Long & Aldridge, told the E-Commerce Times. What this means is that app developers who don’t currently disclose data collection and use will have to develop a disclosure screen, forcing the user to ‘agree’ to terms of usage.

Additionally there’s some good news for developers as well, as the proposed legislation includes a safe harbor provision, meaning there’s some protection for developers and organizations who comply with the new rules, a valuable tool in consumer class action lawsuits.

In the end though, despite the significant pros in further legislation in the mobile space, app developers likely have nothing to worry about—at least for the short term—for the simple fact that bipartisan agreement on mobile privacy will have to wait until all the more important partisan issues get sorted out…and that might take awhile.

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

2013 has not been an easy year for the Big Three wireless providers who have found themselves in the courts over several different matters throughout the year.

The latest problem has seen Bell lose a lawsuit against a customer in the Northwest Territories over a dispute surrounding a 911 service in the region.

In the court, the judge found that the customers didn’t actually receive the service which they paid for from the provider who plans to challenge the ruling.

Bell hasn’t had much luck in the courts in recent months having had their proposed takeover of Astral being delayed and forced into a haring following complaints from their competitors.

The problem in the Northwest Territories relates to the company’s regional emergency service which has been set-up following the lack of a 911 service in the region.

However, Yellowknife residents James and Samuel Anderson didn’t receive the service which they paid $9 a year for stating that it wasn’t available at all in the NWT, Yukon or Nunavut.

At the end of the case, Bell was told that they shouldn’t force resident to use a service that they can’t access and the company could be forced to compensate 30,000 customers in the region.

Despite that ruling, Bell did manage to escape further damage as Justice Ron Veale ruled that the provider didn’t have to provide the emergency service within the region.

The company are now planning to challenge the ruling as they feel there is no legal ground for the Anderson’s to launch a case from. These feelings were compounded by Bell’s media representative Jason Laszlo who told the press that “we will certainly appeal its decision on a matter that hadn’t even been certified for trial – i.e. whether customers in those areas are exempt from paying the fees charged to all customers nationally.”

It’s expected that the appeal could take place later on in the year with the matter potentially being sent to the Supreme Court should it fail to be settled after the appeal.

No matter what happens with Bell’s appeal, the ruling itself is a first in the Northwest Territories and proves that wireless providers such as Bell need to live up to their promises to ensure that residents in rural communities stay connected and can benefit from mobile services just like those living in more populated areas of the country.

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Written by: Andrew Roach www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

As web giants continue to circle fast-growing start-ups like sharks circling a school of fish, Yahoo has decided to get in on the action, confirming that it agreed to pay $1.1 billion for micro-blogging site Tumblr, along with a “promise not to screw it up.” As part of that promise, under the terms of the deal Yahoo will let Tumblr continue to operate as a separate entity, allowing it to retain “the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.”

While the deal shows that Yahoo still has some staying power in a rapidly changing technology market, with enough cash to throw at one of the many fast-growing start-ups who have the rapt attention of millions of users (particularly among the youth demographics), I have to wonder what Yahoo hopes to get out of the deal, given that Tumblr generates very little revenue despite its throngs of followers, and that Yahoo’s promise not to screw things up seems to preclude any introduction of advertising revenues.

Simply put, its easy to see how Google makes money off of its ever-growing cadre of products and services, all of them geared towards getting eyeballs on advertising, but its unclear to me exactly what Yahoo hopes to gain from spending over a billion dollars on Tumblr, as silly promises and financial realities offer little hope for the future.

“Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission — to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve — certainly isn’t changing,” Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp said on Monday in a statement. “But we’re elated to have the support of Yahoo and their team who share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw from.”

Beyond that, Yahoo didn’t articulate its own plans for the micro-blogging site, saying only that the blogging service’s more than 50 billion blog posts would be an excellent resource for Yahoo’s flagging search engine and other services. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer did acknowledge, however, that Yahoo would be integrating Tumblr into the company’s web pages.

While it might be difficult to see initially what Yahoo hopes to get out of its $1.1 billion investment in Tumblr, given the blog site’s limited revenues and apparent aversion to being changed into an advertising platform, the fact of the matter may be that Yahoo acquired Tumblr for no other reason than to gain an edge in market growth, as it looks to include Tumblr’s 300 odd million users into its overall user numbers.

To that end, Yahoo is certainly not the only web giant to grab thriving revenue-less tech start-ups, as Facebook notably acquired Instagram and Google grabbed YouTube, both out of the desire to increase growth.

In the end, it’s clear that Tumblr will fit well into the Yahoo family, filling a social networking void that has, to this point, made Yahoo all but obsolete as a one-stop Internet option. While it remains to be seen how Yahoo will monetize Tumblr, if nothing else it’ll at least force Tumblr’s cadre of bloggers to give a passing glance to Yahoo…lets hope that’s worth a billion dollars.

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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Telus broke the news last week when it announced that it will acquire Mobilicity for $380 million, creating a precedent in the Canadian wireless market. This move, however, appears to be perfectly legal, despite at first glance being in conflict with Ottawa’s own rules.

For this reason, other wireless startups such as Wind Mobile have raised their voice and asked the government to make it clear whether it is going to uphold its own rules on the sale of Mobilicity.

Speaking with Ottawa Citizen Anthony Lacavera, the CEO of Wind Mobile said incumbents such as Rogers, Bell and Telus shouldn’t be allowed to use loopholes or make creative deals to get around the rules.

“The government can say either you can do deals like that or you can’t,” Lacavera said in an interview. “Rules are always open to some interpretation. So at a minimum, the government needs to be clear and decisive and fast with what they say.”

As Industry Minister Christian Paradis said, he will take his time and review the Telus–Mobilicity deal, but the question is how much time the process will take. Keeping in mind the June 11 deadline for submitting applications for the upcoming wireless spectrum, the future of the wireless startups pretty much depends on the Industry Minister’s decision on the sale of Mobilicity.

The wind of change is blowing in the Canadian wireless market. You may recall that Rogers and Shaw have reached an agreement in which the latter “optionally” gives the unused AWS wireless spectrum it acquired back in 2008 to Rogers, triggering an uproar in the mobile market.

There is also another move that could hint toward Ottawa relaxing its own rules: it allowed Wind Mobile to become the first fully foreign owned wireless player in the country. This move was later “explained” by Industry Minister Christian Paradis, who said that the mobile market needs foreign capital to support wireless competition.

Yet the government’s years-long effort to seeding wireless competition in the country seem to have reached a dead end, mostly because of the government’s awkward methods for helping wireless startups.

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Written by: Istvan Fekete. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

It has been a rather lively year for the Canadian mobile industry so far with companies like Blackberry launching new phones and wireless providers such as Rogers and Bell trying to make themselves more appealing to customers.

This has provided mobile retailers with the perfect opportunity to capitalise on the busy market such as Glentel who have announced a strong start to the year.

The Burnaby based firm have posted a 106% profit from where they were in 2012 as they posted sales results of $305.7 million during Q1 of 2013.

Glentel owns several different mobile brands that include Wireless Wave, TBooth and the newly launched Target Mobile.

One of the reasons for Glentel enjoying such a strong start to the year is thanks to the launch of the new Target Mobile shop in Canada.

After winning the contract at the back of last year, Glentel were involved with the launch of 46 separate stores across Canada since February.

The launch has helped boost the retailer’s presence in several states including Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba as well as within Toronto whilst there are further plan to launch another 78 sores by the end of 2012.

Alongside the success of the new Target Mobile stores, Glentel has also seen success thanks to the performance of their international subsidiaries in both America and Australia.

In the US, both Diamond Wireless and Wireless Zone earned a combined total of $163.3 million in sales over the first period of 2013.

Meanwhile, Glentel’s latest acquisition Allphones performed solidly in Australia with the release of several new smartphones such as the HTC First and the Galaxy S4 to post figures of $45.6 million.

By already posting strong figures at the start of the year, Glentel executives are already planning to expand later on in the year. This was underlined by their President and CEO Thomas Skidmore who stated that “With store expansions in Canada, U.S., and Australia, including our recent entry into the Philippines with our first four mall stores in Manila, growth opportunities seem abundant as we now operate in four countries on three continents.”

With there still several major product launches still to come plus the review of current wireless laws, it seems that retailers such as Glentel are extremely well placed to benefit from a growing and competitive mobile market.

Bell was found liable to tens of thousands of wireless subscribers located in Canada’s North, for charging 75 cents per month for a 911 service that didn’t exist in that area.

The lawsuit started in March in Yellowknife, making the first class-action lawsuit trial in Northwest Territories. However, the original lawsuit dates back to 2007, when two Yellowknife citizens, James Anderson and his son Samuel, first filed the case, complaining Bell was charging $9 a year — or 75 cents per month — for a 911 service that isn’t available in their area. The 911 operator isn’t available anywhere in the Northwest Territories: users in the N.W.T, Yukon and Nunavut paid the amount for a service they didn’t receive. Whitehorse does have a 911 service, while locals in the aforementioned territories can call a 10-digit number for emergency services.

At this stage, the first step was to determine whether Bell is liable or not – the amount it owes to its customers in damages will be determined at a second stage of this trial. It can expect to have to pay hefty damages, though, as the lawyer for the plaintiffs initially estimate potential damages between $1 million and $3 million.

So after five years of legal wrangling, Justice Ron Veal of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories has found Bell Mobility liable. He denied, however, a request for extra punitive damages in the case.

Keith Landy, the Andersons’ lawyer, said the Friday ruling set a precedent, as this is the first class-action lawsuit in the Northwest Territories. “Cellphone has become a necessity today. And by virtue of them having monthly fees to pay, and then having to pay a charge where the service isn’t provided, is certainly something that needed to be corrected in our view.”

From Bell’s position, the lawsuit goes beyond what they initially thought the trial was about. They are silent, though, about those internal emails shedding light on the company’s internal dispute over the 911 service fee.

“We’re pleased the court ruled in our favour on the main issues certified for trial, and found that Bell Mobility is not required to provide live 911 operators. That is the responsibility of local governments,” he said in an email statement.

“But we will certainly appeal its decision on a matter that hadn’t even been certified for trial – i.e. whether customers in those areas are exempt from paying the fees charged to all customers nationally.”

Jason Laszlo, a representative from Bell Media relations, said the company will appeal the ruling and hopes to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

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Written by: Istvan Fekete. www.digitcom.ca. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com by: RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.