Telecom Trends

In co–operation with the IBM Institute for Business Value, The Economist Intelligence Unit has released its e-readiness rankings for 2007.

Canada, now ranked 13th [from number 9 last year], slipped out of the top 10,

owing to a slightly reduced social and cultural environment score, and a lower rating for government policy and vision than other developed-market peers.

Unfortunately, ranking schema will always be marked by biases created by weightings and priorities assigned by their authors to various criteria. For example, in 2007, this study

eliminated fixed-line phones as an indicator and increased the weight of mobile penetration, as mobile phones are generally cheaper, easier to access and, with text messaging and mobile commerce applications, increasingly powerful digital devices.

At first glance, such a shift may seem innocuous but it is based on European pricing practices and therefore may discriminate against historically low pricing for wireline services in North America. Further, as we have discussed previously, European wireless penetration rates are artificially pumped up by users with multiple SIM cards arbitraging roaming rates or gaming 'on-net' calling plans.

There are bright spots for Canada in the report. Thanks to "political stability, a positive foreign investment environment and strong support for private enterprise and competition," Canada is ranked as the world's best business environment. In addition, Canada's legal environment for internet issues is ranked in the top 5. The four factors assessed in this area are:

laws must sufficiently protect consumer rights and intellectual property rights (IPR) offline and online; they must foster the development of digital security enablers such as authentication and certification of online transactions; they must not censor; and, they must allow new businesses to be registered quickly and easily.

It is a new category, called "Government Policy and Vision" that led to Canada falling out of the top 10. The category is actually more of ranking of government leadership - tied to performance and adoption of new technologies by departments other than those we traditionally expect to lead the development of internet and e-commerce policy.

E-ready governments supply their constituents—citizens and organisations—with a clear roadmap for the adoption of technology, and they lead by example in their use of technology to create efficiencies. The Economist Intelligence Unit has created this new category to assess the activities of governments in this area, and their ability to lead their countries towards a digital future. Are governments employing technology to operate and provide public services with less resource investment? Are they spending on ICT to stimulate similar spending in the greater economy? Are “savings” translated into service gains for citizens? Can more people interact with, and receive information from, the government regardless of their own access to technology?

Public Works, CRA, and other agencies will all contribute to improving performance on criteria such as total government spend on ICT as a proportion of GDP; digital development strategy; egovernment strategy; online procurement.

Thanks to a regular reader for pointing me to Om Malik's reference to this report.

Technorati Tags:
e-readiness, Economist, IBM, broadband

The CRTC is going to issue its decision on the 3rd Price Cap period, today at 4pm. There is a 'lock-up' being offered to allow people to get an advance look at the Decision. I am not joining the lock-up so you'll have to wait until later this evening to catch my initial impressions.

Price caps have been in place for the past 10 years and allow incumbents limited pricing flexibility within a 'basket' of products. The ceiling or 'cap' in changes to the price of the services basket is adjusted each year by a factor of inflation less productivity gains and other adjustments. In the case of many services, the cap should have led to price declines because productivity exceeded inflation.

Over the past 10 years, rather than having prices drop, the CRTC had ordered incumbents to put the excess revenues into a fund known as the deferral account. It is expected that the CRTC will make the deferral account a historical artifact with today's Price Cap decision.

We're also going to watch for rulings on rate de-averaging and the duration (eg. 3 years, 5 years?) of this next price cap regime, among other issues.

Watch this space later today for updates.

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Update: [April 30, 4:25 pm]
The Decision is out. Highlights:

• basic residential rates in urban areas are capped at existing levels (a price ceiling);
• basic residential service rates in rural areas are permitted to increase by up to 5% annually;
• local optional service and bundled service rates are no longer subject to pricing constraints;
• telcos are able to de-average rates local residential and optional local services;
• business and other capped service rate increases are limited to the rate of inflation overall and a maximum increase of 10% per year for individual rates;
• pay telephone service rates are permitted to increase to $0.50 per cash call, and $1.00 per non-cash call; and
• rates for public safety and social services (e.g. 9-1-1 service, Message Relay Service) remain frozen.

The Commission’s policy is to move rates closer to costs. The new regime allows telephone companies to raise basic local prices in rural areas by the lesser of the annual rate of inflation or 5 per cent.

Once again on a major decision, Commissioner Langford has dissented from the majority. In his opinion, there are consumers left vulnerable by the new regime. He offers an alternative, which was rejected by his colleagues.

In its quest for administrative efficiency, the majority appears to have abandoned its responsibilities to balance the interests of all stakeholders: customers, competitors and incumbent telephone companies.

Technorati Tags:
CRTC, price caps, deferral account

Lest you think that local phone competition is only found in Canada's biggest cities, it is interesting to check out the number of applications for forbearance that have been filed by Bell Aliant.

In Nova Scotia: Amherst, Windsor, Lunenburg, New Glasgow, Antigonish, Sydney, Barrington, Digby, Yarmouth. In PEI: O'Leary, Summerside, Georgetown. In New Brunswick, Sackville complements more expected communities like Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton. The larger cities in NS and PEI, Halifax and Charlottetown, have also been the subject of applications.

How will forbearance impact consumers? What changes are in store for customers who don't want to switch? Are the phone companies and their competitors as ready as consumers?

All of these questions will be subjects of discussion at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit, June 11-13.

Technorati Tags:
CRTC, Bell Aliant, local forbearance, Canadian Telecom Summit

The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit has added another reception to its schedule, increasing the opportunities to network with the leaders of the industry. To celebrate the launch of newly merged Nokia Siemens Networks, the company is hosting a reception at the end of the day on Tuesday June 12.

The reception will provide an opportunity for conference delegates to meet Simon Beresford-Wylie, the CEO of the global organization.

The Canadian Telecom Summit is Canada's pre-eminent gathering of the telecommunications industry. Attracting the senior-most professionals from around the globe, the event provides a forum for stakeholders to exchange views, share ideas, challenge assumptions and plan for the future.

Registrations are running well ahead of the pace of previous years. At the The Canadian Telecom Summit, plan to make the most of your time. Meeting space is available in a number of board rooms that can be booked by the hour in the PwC Business Centre. More informal meetings can be over a coffee or espresso at the Solace Systems cafe.

How do you meet? Special interest breakout sessions on Monday June 11 cover a range of topics. Three days of breakfasts, coffee breaks, lunches. Receptions on Monday and Tuesday evening. 21 Keynote speakers; panels with 50 industry leaders.

On June 11-13, 2007, the industry will be at The Canadian Telecom Summit. Will you be there too?

Technorati Tags:
Nokia Siemens Networks, Canadian Telecom Summit

One of the more surprising comments at Monday's CWTA forum was heard at the very end of the day.

Luc Lavoie, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Quebecor was engaged in a lively discussion with Lawson Hunter of Bell when Luc said that Quebecor isn't interested in a subsidy. Combine that comment with the speech delivered a week earlier by Quebecor chief executive Pierre Karl Peladeau, we can see that there is at least one new bidder that wants to move quickly to compete without handouts. With family in Montreal next year, I am looking forward to seeing Videotron make some aggressive offers for their quadruple play bundled services.

CARTT warns to watch out for 'spectrum grabbers.' Greg O'Brien cites a comment from earlier in the day by Vince Valentini of TD Newcrest:

Jim Shaw said ‘we’ll be there with our hand out if government is going to give something away for free’

I am in favour of a fully competitive market. What consumer isn't? But we need the entry of new competitors to be fair - without government intervention and manipulation. As I asked last week, how do we guard against speculators that might use the subsidy to inventory spectrum, waiting to flip the licenses when foreign investment restrictions are lifted.

Terence Corcoran of the Financial Post will be moderating a session looking at competition in wireless services at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit on June 13. Panel participants include Robert Depatie of Videotron, Dave Dobbin of Toronto Hydro Telecom and John Watson of TELUS.

I have just learned about a report on The Canadian Wireless Industry – Analysis, Positioning and Capabilities: 2006-09, released by Industry Canada. I'll review it in the coming days.

Technorati Tags:
CWTA, Videotron, Canadian Telecom Summit, TELUS, Toronto Hydro Telecom, AWS, spectrum auction

In October, we last looked at the OECD broadband statistics. The latest stats are out and I would have thought that Canadians should break out the champagne. It is interesting that I read the results so differently from the way Michael Geist at University of Ottawa interprets the same numbers.

The OECD itself states that "Canada continues to lead the G7 group of industrialized countries in broadband penetration." While he acknowledges this triumph, somehow, Professor Geist sees a disturbing trend:

Needless to say, this is a pretty abysmal showing. Far from being an Internet leader, Canada is rapidly becoming a second tier country in terms of broadband penetration with limited broadband competition, hundreds of thousands of people with no hope of any broadband access

Abysmal? As in hopelessly bad?

How do we go from leading the G7 to 'becoming a second tier country'? Do you think that we have a little bit of over-reaction? Maybe I'm just a 'glass is half full' kind of guy. Of course, in this case, I think the glass is more than half full.

Professor Geist expresses concern that Canada is near the bottom (second last, in fact) in terms of growth rates for broadband penetration. In reality, a declining rate of growth is a normal behaviour in a market approaching saturation. Look at who is dead last in growth rate: Iceland - a country ranked 3rd in overall broadband. South Korea is next to Canada at the bottom of growth and near the top on penetration per 100 inhabitants. You can find the tables on Michael Geist's blog. Don't run out to get sack-cloth and ashes too quickly.

There is a fundamental problem with the OECD stats in any case. Unfortunately, the OECD measures broadband in terms of penetration per 100 inhabitants. A better indicator would likely be measurements per 100 households, which would normalize against differences in household size. After all, broadband connectivity is a family purchase, not that of individual members. A quick look using household numbers I found would see some significant shifts in OECD rankings. Differences in average household size will yield measurable changes in ranking countries that have populations with household access to broadband.

I'd like to hear if someone has looked at those stats.

Let's address the comment [and often heard lament] that there are 'hundreds of thousands of people in Canada with no hope of any broadband access.' Where are they?

Thanks to companies like Barrett Xplore, there are no households in Canada beyond the reach of broadband service. Let's explode that myth once and for all. Canadians have universal access to broadband internet.

John Maduri of Barrett Xplore will be speaking on June 11 on a panel looking at wireless options for broadband at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit.

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Update: [April 26, 10:25 am]
I found some additional household size data - although it is from mixed years. When I plug that table into the OECD stats for broadband per 100 inhabitants, it yields some interesting information. South Korea's numbers appear to make no sense - with 4.4 persons per household, South Korea appears to have 128% penetration of broadband - more than one broadband connection per home. Canada moves from number 9 to number 8, Australia jumps into 4th place, Denmark falls to 5th (from first) and Sweden drops out of the top 10 and falls behind the US.

Technorati Tags:
OECD, broadband, cable, DSL, Barrett Xplore, Canadian Telecom Summit

A common element running through a number of presentations at Monday's CWTA forum was tackling the myths of competition in Canadian mobile wireless, further challenging the call from some elements for government subsidies to stimulate a fourth national carrier. Later this week, I'll write more about reaction from regional cable companies to spectrum set-asides.

Dvai Ghose of Genuity led off the 'myth-busting' with an attack on 8 myths in Canadian wireless:

1. Wireless penetration is lower than the US due to prices
2. Canadian ARPUs are high due to high usage
3. ARPU is the only indicator of wireless affordability
4. Canadian carriers are underspending on networks
5. Canadian wireless consumers are unhappy
6. Wireless is more of an oligopoly in Canada
7. Consumers have very little choice
8. Wireless has always been profitable

His conclusion was that the industry was not broken and government should not intervene.

Rob Bruce, president of Rogers Wireless, spoke of Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics during his luncheon keynote address. His talk took aim at the myth of a cozy relationship between the 3 major carriers.

He asked how cozy the industry can be when Canada has seen such a significant shift in market share over the past 5 years. According to his charts, Bell has seen its share of the postpaid market fall from 42% in 2001 to 23%. In the same period, TELUS share climbed from 21% to 32% and Rogers has grown from 20% to 45%.

The fireworks are just getting started.

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Update: [April 25, 8:05 am]
Iain Grant - who was unavailable for Monday's event in Ottawa - did an interview in today's National Post. The theme of the article is the role of small players in pricing. Iain continues to call for subsidies for smaller players - like city of Toronto-owned Toronto Hydro Telecom, while conceding that Quebecor would not need the financial help. The interview suggests that there are really only 2 carriers in any given region; a myth that conveniently ignores the dozen or so brands and competitors that are acting in precisely the role of offering creative and often aggressive pricing alternatives.

I am hearing rumours that next week's earnings reports may show more shifts in share. Hardly signs of coziness.

Technorati Tags:
CWTA, AWS, spectrum auction

I have been playing around with the latest upgrades to my Joost™ beta trial lately. I like the user interface but I'm not sure I fit the target demographic.

The variety of content currently available on Joost is woefully inadequate, possibly due to the beta nature of the product at this time. It makes me wonder about the entire concept of their content distribution model.

How do you get live sports (a major challenge for compressed content), news, current affairs. Will any of these be coming?

What about access to new release programming, movies, etc.? Without these, I can't see how anyone could consider cancelling their current TV distribution supplier.

Joost may prove that they can technically distribute video, but isn't the real question whether people want to watch. With people moving their entertainment to HD large screens, I don't think the Joost quality is good enough.

Is Joost an example of what I have called 'The Iridium Syndrome' - an engineering-led solution solving a non-existent problem resulting in massive flushing of cash?

One would think that IP TV, in whatever form, would be especially well suited for random access to archival programs, combined with a feature rich search engine capability. Something like entering "Lucille Ball chocolate factory" or "NASA moon Armstrong steps" or "Gomer Pyle". What about a search for "Beatles Ed Sullivan 1963". Am I showing my demographic prejudice?

Sorting programs into channels is something we have today. Our current broadcast distribution technologies are optimized to do a great job of delivering channels.

It is unclear to me that Joost is delivering enough on its potential to be a truly disruptive force. Random access and searching the universe of existing program libraries strikes me as more worthwhile for users and a more disruptive leap forward.

Technorati Tags:
Joost, Iridium, cable, disruption, Joost

I mentioned last week that I'll be speaking about wireless pricing and competition issues later today at the CWTA AWS Forum in Ottawa.

I will provide updates from the Forum using a trial of a new Canadian mobile blogging tool for my antique Blackberry - I returned the demonstrator 8800. The AWS Forum has a variety of perspectives - the financial sector, equipment providers, current carriers and potential new entrants.

Speaking of wireless pricing, I noticed that Vikesh Anand posted about a new Rogers calling plan that offers 700 minutes per month of peak calling for $40.

---

Update: [April 23, 5:20 am]
Watch this space for updates from the AWS Forum.
[April 23, 9:40 am]
Flight to Ottawa was a who's who of Canadian wireless - carriers, financial folks and entrepreneurs. A sell-out crowd at the Chateau Laurier - of course, CWTA used predatory conference pricing - free. Of note in the opening remarks by Michael Binder and Len St.-Aubin's description of the consultation process was a repeated assurance that the Minister has no preconceived ideas. Despite last week's call by Quebecor to expedite the auction, Industry Canada expects a lively internal discussion as it develops its auction policy.
[April 23, 11:00 am]
An unspoken message that I picked up from the technology session? With next generation wireless delivering viable alternate access for internet, are we going to see comments addressing wireless net neutrality as part of the AWS auction consultation.
[April 23, 11:40 am]
Dvai Ghose's 8 Myths of Canadian wireless may win the award for most entertaining of the day. I'll ask Dvai for his slides for your reading later this week.
[April 23, 3:10 pm]
Lies, damned lies and statistics was the title of Rob Bruce's luncheon keynote and it was a common theme in the afternoon. Comparative penetration rates? Pricing? RoE? My conclusion: changing the rules of the game sends a dangerous message to the capital markets - let's welcome additional competitive players, but without economic distortions in the marketplace.
[April 23, 3:35 pm]
Michael Hennessy of TELUS mentioned the private equity elephant in the room. With multiple Canadian private equity firms bidding 35B plus for Bell, is there really a need to have concern for new entrants to raise capital.

Technorati Tags:
CWTA, AWS, spectrum auction

There was a comment yesterday asking me why I have not written anything about the private equity interest in the Canadian telecom sector. Thanks for asking.

Surprising as it may seem, blog writing is not quite as lucrative as you may think. Many of my readers don't seem to be very interested in the ads that frame this page. As a result, I'll reserve commentary and advisory services [on certain issues, at least] for my consulting clients. But keep those cards and letters coming.

I noticed that, in the month of April, I have already mentioned Star Trek three times: two of the posts were associated with William Shatner coming to Toronto to help Rogers launch its Vision video calling and then there was Friday's citation of Spock's line from Wrath of Khan (among other episodes) in my post regarding carriers shaping packets for the good of the many.

Maybe I have spent too much time on campus at U of T, Queens and McGill this month. It is taking me back to my youth.

I wonder where I packed those Klingon action figures...

Technorati Tags:
Rogers, William Shatner, Spock, Star Trek

Earlier this week, I mentioned that my daughter has been using Virgin Mobile for her phone service for the past 8 months. We signed up with them initially to avoid getting into a long term contract in advance of wireless number portability.

A few days ago, we called Virgin to determine how we should deal with her move back to Toronto. A real person answered the call, no music nor bionic menuing - what an innovation for 6-1-1! Within the duration of few minute call, we had her phone reprogrammed to a new number - no charge.

I like choice. I like free. I like having no system access fees. These are a few of my favourite things.

Andrew Black, President and CEO of Virgin Mobile Canada will be speaking at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit, at 4:30 on June 11.

Technorati Tags:
Virgin Mobile, Canadian Telecom Summit, system access fee

Every so often, I run across a case of customer service that is so exceptional - good or bad - that I am sit in amazement when I get off the phone.

Some companies focus on their contact centre - it is considered a competitive differentiator. I think that customers like to do business with companies that have front line employees projecting a positive, even happy, image. Tomorrow, I'll write more about Virgin Mobile, a company in this category.

And then there is the firm that I have been trying to talk to for the past two days.

It started with me trying to respond to an ad for a colour laser printer from yesterday's National Post. No phone number in the ad, just a web address. Problem was that the website was broken. I found a toll free number (1-800-name of company), but the IVR routing was broken. Argghhh! Push 1 for English, 3 for computer equipment, 2 for printers, 2 for business and then "Please hold while I transfer to our service partner...". Finally, one ring to reach "your call did not go through..."

Don't you hate that?

After trying a couple more phone numbers, I spoke to their third party PR firm - the only shining light in the past 24 hours.

The IVR routing has since been repaired, but the agent at the end of the phone is from a third party hardware maintenance company and he routed my call to another queue that simply dropped the call after 5 minutes of on-hold music.

The ad for the printer had a circle around the brand name and said that this label was the most important part of the printer.

I agree.

The problem is that the company's name is not projecting the same image as they might have hoped.

What is your contact centre doing for your brand's image?

Technorati Tags:
IVR, call centre

Does traffic shaping violate the principles of net neutrality?

That is a subject of discussion by some folks responding to a recent article by Michael Geist and follow-up from Mark Evans and Matt Roberts' technical description of neutrality considerations in view of network capacity limitations.

Michael Geist follows up with a discussion of whether Rogers' traffic shaping practices controvene some of the recent official definitional statements on net neutrality principles issued by different bodies. The Telecommmunications Policy Review Panel called for a net neutrality provision on the following terms:

The Telecommunications Act should be amended to confirm the right of Canadian consumers to access publicly available Internet applications and content of their choice by means of all public telecommunications networks providing access to the Internet. This amendment should

• authorize the CRTC to administer and enforce these consumer access rights,
• take into account any reasonable technical constraints and efficiency considerations related to providing such access, and
• be subject to legal constraints on such access, such as those established in criminal, copyright and broadcasting laws.

I have not heard allegations of Rogers fully blocking access to lawful content or applications. Blocking is more severe than slowing or throttling certain classes of traffic. Matt Roberts' piece speaks to the reasonableness of "technical constraints and efficiency considerations" that Rogers could point to. Would such a description be adequate under the intention of the TPR report? The TPR report did not suggest that all applications should be treated equally which, coupled with paragraph 'b', appears to open the door to traffic management.

Another definition examined in the Michael Geist discussion is the commitment set out by AT&T/BellSouth as a condition for FCC approval of its merger:

AT&T/BellSouth also commits that it will maintain a neutral network and neutral routing in its wireline broadband Internet access service. This commitment shall be satisfied by AT&T/BellSouth's agreement not to provide or to sell to Internet content, application, or service providers, including those affiliated with AT&T/BellSouth, any service that privileges, degrades or prioritizes any packet transmitted over AT&T/BellSouth's wirelines broadband Internet access service based on its source, ownership or destination.

There are at least two important aspects to this commitment that merit a careful parsing of the second sentence. AT&T agreed not to provide nor sell a specific type of QoS service to other parties. The 'forbidden' QoS service would be one that discriminates on the basis of source, ownership or destination.

Is traffic shaping of certain types of file transfer traffic in violation of this commitment? Such a practice does degrade and prioritize some packets, but I have not heard anything that suggests that there is a discrimination based on who generates the traffic (the source), who receives it (the destination) or the ownership whether it is the IP owner, the application owner or the file owner. As such, I don't see how traffic shaping of a class of applications qualifies as a violation of this principle.

But if we look further at the AT&T commitment to the FCC, even if a carrier does prioritize based on the source, ownership or destination, it appears to be OK. The commitment is that AT&T will not sell such a prioritization service to other ISPs, application providers or content providers. I don't see, at least in this paragraph, a commitment not to discriminate for its own network management purposes.

As such, there is nothing in this particular commitment that prevents AT&T from degrading packets for whatever reasons it chooses or just because it happens to be a month with an 'R'.

If Rogers is shaping classes of traffic, such as torrents or any other, as some of the allegations are asserting, it appears to be a legitimate network management activity under current and proposed regulations: under the TPR proposals; and, the neutrality commitments made by AT&T.

As Spock would say, "The good of the many outweighs the good of the few."

---

Update: [April 20, 2:50 pm]
A letter to the editor of the Toronto Star from Ken Engelhart of Rogers denies that Rogers is degrading encrypted traffic. The letter goes further and says that Rogers has not received any complaints to its customer service centre about alleged problems getting email from University of Ottawa, as claimed in the original article by Michael Geist.

Technorati Tags:
ATT, FCC, Rogers, TPR, Net Neutrality, Star Trek

Michael Sone and I are happy to announce that Industry Minister Maxime Bernier will be returning to deliver the final remarks at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit on June 13.

At last year's event, the Minister delivered the groundbreaking news of Canada's first policy direction to the CRTC. Since that time, we have witnessed considerable focus on telecom issues from the Minister and Cabinet.

The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit is taking place in the middle of the comments phase for Industry Canada's consultation on the next mobile spectrum auction. There is also a lot of talk these days about industry consolidation, corporate structures and foreign ownership.

All of these are great reasons to want to listen first hand to the messages in the Minister's remarks.

Plan to attend The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit, June 11-13 and stay through to the end to hear his wrap up.

Technorati Tags:
Maxime Bernier, Canadian Telecom Summit

I was happy to read about the likelihood that Videotron plans to evolve from reseller to facilities-based provider of wireless services.

Regular readers will recall that I tend to believe in letting market forces work, especially when there is so much choice available. We have 3 real, facilities based carriers and a host of resellers who are keeping the marketplace pretty competitive for consumers.

People often neglect to mention the MVNOs and resellers - companies like Amp'd, PC, Virgin and others. I know that Virgin has some real differentiators for customers - my daughter has been using their service this past year. No system access fees, real live customer service reps, aggressive price plans - easy, no-charge number changes (for when she is back in Toronto for the summer).

I think additional competitors would be great, but I get concerned with calls for government subsidies and intervention into the marketplace. A set-aside of the spectrum to be reserved for new entrants is a subsidy. I don't like the implications for distorting market econmics if one industry participant pays less than market value for its infrastructure - it ends up with an artificially subsidized cost structure. The need to guard against speculators that might use the subsidy to inventory spectrum waiting for foreign investment restrictions to be lifted.

I don't believe lower wireless pricing leads to increased market penetration. If it did, then the US should be leading the world.

There are a lot more complicated forces at work. I'll be speaking about some of these issues on Monday at the CWTA AWS Forum in Ottawa.

I wonder if the proper correlation, if any, may be that a decline in the rate of change in market penetration leads to more aggressive pricing. In other words, as the market becomes saturated, service providers drop prices to try to grab each others' customers.

Any economists want to do a study?

Technorati Tags:
Videotron, Pierre Karl Peladeau, CWTA, AWS, spectrum auction

I received a little package from Rogers last week - an opportunity to test drive the new Blackberry 8800.

I have been using a 7200 series Blackberry for the past few years and my family will attest that I am a certified addict. I need the full keyboard, so I have been waiting for the 8800's full keyboard combined with the Pearl trackball. It takes some getting used to - but there is so much more.

The system boots up almost immediately - a welcome change from what I have been used to. Starting from removing the battery is a longer initialization process. Quad-band, GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks with resultant zippy download speeds.

The built-in GPS came in handy for a road trip yesterday. While Pierre Karl Peladeau, chief executive of Quebecor, was in Ottawa calling for an acceleration of the AWS spectrum auction, I spent the day testing the Telenav turn-by-turn voice navigation to help us get through the streets of Montreal. At $10 per month, it is a nice package that is priced competitively to services like GM's OnStar.

One-touch voice activated dialing and a speaker phone are other useful tools - especially when driving. The system responds to other voice commands as well. Has anyone built an application to get the system to read my incoming emails to me while I drive?

Of course, it is also Bluetooth equipped and I was able to easily pair one of my Motorola earpieces. The demo unit I have also came with wired stereo ear buds - the system can play audio and video files (MP3, WMA, MPEG4 and WMV among others).

Will RIM design one that can float when I drop it into Lake Muskoka?

Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion, will be a keynote speaker at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit on June 12.

Technorati Tags:
RIM, 8800, Blackberry, Rogers

Just when we might have thought that the Cabinet's criteria for local forbearance were pretty clear, the initial wave of ILEC forbearance applications triggered a CRTC public notice on how to deal with exceptions for the Competitor Quality of Service (CQoS) metrics.

Of course, you are asking yourself, "Why would the CRTC consider exceptions? Either they beat the numbers or they don't." Well, long before CQoS was considered as a forbearance criterion, the 14 indicators were used to determine if rebates should be paid to competitors when the ILECs provide inadequate service levels. As part of the rebate plan, in Decision 2005-20, the CRTC created a mechanism for considering exclusions from CQoS results where an ILEC might have failed to meet a performance standard due to circumstances beyond its control.

So, the CRTC is now calling for comments on whether that 'get out of jail free card' for rebates should apply for the local forbearance test as well.

The clock is ticking quickly on this file; comments are due on April 27 and replies are due just one week later. It has to be an expedited process. After all, the first applications for forbearance have to be answered in 120 days from last week's applications.

Technorati Tags:
CRTC, local forbearance, ILECs

On Saturday, the Globe ran an article by Derek DeCloet, who repeated the now familiar view that deregulating local phone service will lead to price increases. Mark Evans described the article as Finally, Someone Gets It. Rob Hyndman joined in and Michael Geist pointed to the article as well.

I disagree with that viewpoint and I am more aligned with Andy Abramson's rebuttal. I know that we weren't going to see vigorous competitive behaviour without the regulatory handcuffs being removed from the incumbents. After all, why would competitors price agressively when incumbent prices were fixed and publicly posted.

Under the rules of the tariffs, the ILECs aren't even allowed to waive service charges, can't contact people who had left them, couldn't create fall promotions to coincide with student moving dates. When the ILECs have retail prices from which it is impossible to vary, how creative does the competition have to get?

There are also more competitors than just the cable companies. While Canadians don't have access to Skype-In, we do have Vonage, Comwave, Babytel and a wide variety of other VoIP providers. Primus Canada offers both VoIP and conventional telephone competition for residential and business applications. Canada is well beyond a duopoly or oligopoly for substitutable products.

Mark Evans argues that Bell is unlikely to offer across the board price decreases because of the impact on its revenues. He is likely correct on that point. But normal behaviour would suggest targetted price discounting, rather than across the board rate changes. Maybe it will be special rates for students. Maybe it is a promotional deal on your first year of local phone, internet and TV service when you buy a new home or move into a certain apartment building.

More fierce competition for business services - large and small. Bundled promotions: commit to 2 or 3 years on your cell phone and we'll throw in integrated voice mail. Buy Digital Voice and get half price on Digital Voice Lite.

What kind of pricing will unregulated local prices bring? We'll have to see. But it is a certainty that under a regulated environment, we weren't getting lower prices from either the ILECs or their competitors.

The state of competition in residential, business and wireless markets will be the subject of panel discussions at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit in June, featuring business unit leaders from Bell, Rogers, TELUS, Toronto Hydro Telecom, Videotron and Vonage.

Technorati Tags:
CRTC, local forbearance, ILECs, Canadian Telecom Summit

There is a Canadian Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC) Emergency Services Working Group (ESWG) that has been trying to sort out how VoIP service providers can deliver E-911. After recent conference calls on March 27 & 28, about the only thing the ESWG members could agree on was that they will never agree, according to a report by the Canadian Association of VoIP Providers.

Almost as if to prove the dependency that new entrants still have on ILECs for certain bottleneck services, a flare-up arose in architectural design for a solution for E-911. The four major cable carriers, Cogeco, Videotron, Rogers and Shaw, called for an immediate stop to activities at the ESWG. In a letter filed with the Commission, the Cable Companies are reported to have expressed "deep concern with the direction being taken within the ESWG" and labelled the process as "abusive".

There seem to be three or four irreconcilable positions: ILECs; Cablecos; Quebec ISPs and CAVP. It is unclear that the CRTC will be willing nor able to choose an approach - certainly not in a timely fashion.

As a result, access independent VoIP customers may be the losers, having to wait for an industry-wide solution. At the same time, we may be seeing whether VoIP customers really rely on 911.

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CRTC, CISC, E-911, CAVP, ILEC, cableco

KINSA - The Kids Internet Safety Alliance - is holding its first annual gala evening on May 2 at the Ontario Science Centre, celebrating 'Heroes of the Fight' with an award of distinction dinner.

The event is intended to raise awareness and celebrate the work being done to make the Internet safer for children. Funds will support Youth and Parent Education, Internet Safety Advocacy and the establishment of the KINSA Centre for Child Rescue and CyberCrime Investigation.

Join us to celebrate and honour the people who have been working on our behalf to protect our children. You can download an order form for individual tickets and tables here.

There is a session looking at Illegal Content on the Internet at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit in June, featuring KINSA board members Paul Gillespie and David Butt.

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KINSA, Gala

In response to an application from Rogers Wireless, the CRTC has simplified the process for competitive phone companies, including wireless carriers, to access numbers. In doing so, a side benefit is that the North American Numbering Plan may last just a little bit longer.

In the past, each competitor had to be assigned a three digit central office code for each exchange in which it offered service. In some small communities, 3 competitors (or wireless service providers) means three times the number of numbers.

Why did the incumbents fight this proposal, despite the benefits it brings for their own wireless and CLEC operations?

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CRTC, numbers, Rogers

Late yesterday afternoon, TELUS filed its first applications for forbearance: for Edmonton, Alberta and Vancouver, West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Richmond, New Westminster, Newton and Whalley, British Columbia.

Among the most immediately significant aspects of last week's Cabinet announcement was the removal of restrictions on winbacks and promotions.

Winback rules were introduced by the CRTC to prevent the incumbent telephone companies from targeting new customers of competitors with special offers, which presumably would threaten emerging competition. Given the current state of competition, the government was of the view that the CRTC's winback restrictions were no longer required.

Want to get your phone company's attention? Just like trying to cancel your cell phone service, the mere threat of leaving may bring the best deals.

Let the games begin.

---

Update: [April 12, 1:20 pm]
Bell Canada has now filed applications for Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, London, Hamilton and Quebec City.

Technorati Tags:
winback, CRTC, local forbearance, TELUS

Working in a carrier environment helps identify the challenges of business-grade requirements for service delivery. While the needs of the corporate world are somewhat irrelevant to some, for the sake of argument, accept that agencies and departments within the government might be among those corporate clients.

Let's assume that there are some employees who want or need to work from a remote location, like home, or from vacation. I would suspect that there are a number of corporate applications that these people might need to access that might require priority treatment over the kids' gaming or music - either in the same location or on the same router at the ISP. Maybe it is a videoconference link or even a secured enhanced IM link. Maybe a mobile health care kiosk.

How does the industry provide network quality assurance for these applications in a 'neutral' network?

Is there ever a situation that might permit discrimination - let's actually call it differentiation - between the various bit streams? Is it unreasonable to permit ISPs and their clients the flexibility to develop creative business relationships which enable such services?

Let me lay on a more consumer-oriented example. I just upgraded to the latest version of Joost. The software warns people:

Joost is a streaming video application, and so uses a relatively high amount of bandwidth per hour. In 1 hour of viewing, 320 Mb will be downloaded and 105 Mb uploaded, which means that a 1 Gb cap will be exhausted in about 10 hours.

If you pay for your bandwidth usage per megabyte or have your usage capped by your ISP, you should be careful to always exit the Joost program completely when you are finished watching it.

What if pay-for-use pricing or usage caps become a constraint for Joost or another application like it? Would it be OK for the application developer to enter into advertising or other agreements that enable it to pay for excess usage on behalf of its clients? Think of it as being analogous to toll-free calling, where the charges are reversed.

Notably, Tim Wu describes net neutrality as a network design principle, rather than a rigid requirement.

The internet isn't perfect but it aspires for neutrality in its original design. Its decentralized and mostly neutral nature may account for its success as an economic engine and a source of folk culture.

It is important to note his selection of terms such as 'mostly neutral' in recognition that the internet has not been bound by a fixed regulatory (or network design) framework. Is it possible that part of the internet's success as an economic engine is the variability enabled by its original design - the inter-networking of the internet?

Can the existing undue discrimination provisions of Canada's Telecom Act provide sufficient protection to permit the continued evolution of flexible internet business models?

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Joost, net neutrality, Tim Wu

Twenty five years ago, on the April 10, 1982 episode of Saturday Night Live, Eddie Murphy held up a live lobster and asked viewers to place calls to vote on whether to save or boil Larry the Lobster. The tally was 239,096 to release Larry and 227,452 for death by boiling water and drawn butter.

Larry was saved for a week - but that is another story.

The event was a high water mark for interactive TV at the time. Almost half a million calls were placed in a 30 minute period over AT&T's 900 network. Perhaps Murphy's stunt could be considered an early demonstration of the potential for telecom and media convergence.

The telephone network survived and SNL proved the potential for interactive voting to profitably integrate with TV shows. Today's voting for singing Idols should be thankful for the ultimate sacrifice made by a lobster in the name of market research.

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Larry the Lobster, Eddie Murphy, SNL

Rogers has acquired a number of TV stations that needed to be divested from CHUM/CTV Globemedia as a result of their merger.

It is interesting to see how Rogers is able to successfully operate a converged business model: with cable TV, wireless, internet, home phone, broadcasting, adding content from print media and sports franchises.

What are the factors that have enabled successful integration of various acquired properties? How does Rogers drive synergies beyond the value of these strategic investments?

Rogers Communications President and COO, Nadir Mohamed, will be the opening speaker at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit in June.

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Rogers, A-Channel, Nadir Mohamed

Over the past few years, there had been a trend toward extreme sports - people pushing the limits of human physical capacity and perhaps pushing the limits of common sense as people seek fame and glory.

There are extremist views that keep percolating from some elements in the discussion that threaten the nationalization of telecommunications infrastructure unless carriers embrace net neutrality. Whoa!

There is something about the threat of such expropriation of assets that makes you say 'hmmm'. My experience is that the investment community doesn't take kindly to doing business in countries that: a) nationalize infrastructure or private property; or, b) engage in extortion.

I would prefer to be able to simply ignore the extremist rants of some Canadian members of the Hugo Chavez fan club. They seem to be a loud minority, pining for simpler days of Ministries of Posts, Telephone and Telegraphs. Sorry - those days of central government planning and the associated glacial or geological pace of network evolution have been eradicated from most of the planet.

I'd prefer to discuss the issue of net neutrality on a level with some of the deeper thinking academics. There are serious questions to be addressed.

I'm even willing to acknowledge there are certain service provider misbehaviours that may warrant a modicum of contrition, consistent with my view that we generally have in place the necessary laws to safeguard reasonable rights.

Later in the week, I'll look at some examples of why I think the objectives of net neutrality just aren't realistic for customers who want advanced services.

The rapid pace of internet innovation we have witnessed to date has taken place without specialized net neutrality legislation. It seems to me that network neutrality is overly broad regulation that will serve stifle innovation.

The internet has proven itself to be a turbo-charged engine for economic growth in the information age. Network neutrality may result in shifting into neutral the enormous power of the internet in effectively moving information.

That is a risk that we can't take idly.

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nationalization, Hugo Chavez, net neutrality

I was flipping through the proxy materials from Nortel and noticed a table on page 13 that listed the officers of the company.

Only one officer, the treasurer, has been in their role more than a few years. Of the 28 listed executives, just one was appointed in 2004, 12 in 2005 and 14 in 2006. Flip ahead to the executive compensation chart on page 30 - the favourite page for the voyeurs among us - and not one of the top paid people has been around long enough to show more than their 2006 pay. Usually, this table has 3 years of information.

The proxy statement is further evidence that the industry is seeing a new Nortel.

We'll be hearing from Nortel CTO, John Roese, speaking as our closing speaker at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit in June.

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Nortel, John Roese, Canadian Telecom Summit

All businesses are regulated in some way or another, whether it is workplace safety, public health or consumer protection. Wednesday's announcement from the Minister represents a move toward the continued normalization of regulation of the telecom industry.

As the statement from the CRTC says,

Both the Commission’s original framework and the modifications made by the Government today have the common objective of fostering competition in the Canadian telecommunications market.

The Cabinet directive gets us to that state faster.

Still, existing consumer safeguards, such as a price ceiling for stand-alone residential service will be maintained as well as continued price regulation in regions where there is little competition. Further, safety and social regulations, such as 9-1-1 and services for the disabled will remain.

The Competition Bureau will be an increasingly important guardian to address anti-competitive issues in the deregulated markets. The government has added $10.5 million over five years to its budget in order to strengthen its role in policing newly deregulated telecommunications markets.

Sheridan Scott, Commissioner of the Competition Bureau, will be a keynote speaker at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit on the afternoon of June 13.

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CRTC, Sheridan Scott, Competition Bureau

Wednesday's final version of the variance on Local Forbearance establishes a simplified presence test to determine if there are at least two sources of facilities-based competition for consumers to from, in addition to the incumbent.

In the descriptive section of the Industry Canada Regulatory Impact Statement, this test is described as:

Forbearance can occur in a residential market if there are, in addition to the incumbent, at least two independent facilities-based telecommunications services providers, including providers of mobile wireless services, each of which offers services in the market and is capable of serving at least 75% of the number of residential lines that the incumbent is capable of serving in that market, and at least one of which, in addition to the incumbent, is a facilities-based, fixed-line telecommunications service provider.

But, in the actual Order, the phrase is slightly different, changing the general term "services" to specify "local exchange services":

... if the ILEC offers residential local exchange services, there are, in addition to the ILEC, at least 2 independent facilities-based telecommunications service providers, including providers of mobile wireless services, each of which offers local exchange services in the market and is capable of serving at least 75% of the number of residential local exchange service lines that the ILEC is capable of serving, and at least one of which, in addition to the ILEC, is a facilities-based, fixed-line telecommunications service provider [emphasis added]

Does the clause "each of which offers local exchange services" also apply to the clause "providers of mobile wireless services"?

The phrase "local exchange service" has a specific meaning by the CRTC. Recently, it appears in the CRTC's VoIP Decision as "local exchange service (i.e. PES or local VoIP service)". In the Decision that was the subject of the Cabinet variance order, "Local exchange services have, historically, been provided on a monopoly basis by the incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs)."

By definition at the CRTC, most of Canada's mobile service providers do not generally provide local exchange services, presumably unless they are also CLECs, such as Fido.

Considering how some significant dollars have depended on the regulatory interpretation on a lowly comma, will the phrase "local exchange service" create anxious moments?

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CRTC, Cabinet, Local Forbearance

In the US, since August 2005, the FCC has a set of 4 principles that define net neutrality issues as a series of consumer rights:

to encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of public Internet:

1. consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice;
2. consumers are entitled to run applications and services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement;
3. consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network; and
4. consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.

On Wednesday, the Canadian Cabinet ordered the establishment of an independent consumer agency, what I have called C-5, Canadian Communications Consumer Complaint Commission. The federal government said that it believes that the mandate of the agency should include resolving complaints from individual and small business retail customers. C-5 would be an integral component of a deregulated telecommunications market.

Further, the CRTC is to begin annual reports to Cabinet on such issues. Its initial consumer complaints report is supposed to include

an identification of issues or trends that may warrant further attention by the Commission or by the government, such as the availability of consumer choice, the impact of marketing strategies and practices, consumer billing and contracts

Should net neutrality be framed in Canada as a consumer issue? Would or could this new consumer body be tasked with exploring net neutrality as an ex-post complaint centre, dealing with violations as they occur?

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C-5, FCC, net neutrality

The Federal Cabinet has launched what I will call a C-5 body: the Canadian Communications Consumer Complaints Commission.

The CRTC currently receives complaints and inquiries from consumers. The Cabinet considers that an effective consumer agency should develop an industry code of conduct; publish an annual report for each telecommunications service provider; and, identify issues or trends that may warrant further attention by the CRTC or the government;

The cabinet wants to ensure independence of the C-5 agency from the industry through: a majority of governors who are unaffiliated with telecommunications service provider; a CEO also unaffiliated; and a budget funded provided by the industry.

The CRTC will need to report annually, beginning April 2008:

1. each report shall outline complaints received from individuals and small business retail customers regarding services provided by telecommunications service providers and shall include:
   
   1. statistical information, for each telecommunications service provider and in total, on the nature and number of complaints received and the standing of these complaints when the report was compiled,
   2. an identification of issues or trends that may warrant further attention by the Commission or by the government, such as the availability of consumer choice, the impact of marketing strategies and practices, consumer billing and contracts, and
   3. a report on progress made toward the establishment of a Consumer Agency; and
2. the Commission shall continue to make reports until such time as a Consumer Agency has been established by industry and approved by the Commission.

This is the implementation of another recommendation (6-2) of the TPR, which spoke of the need of a new Consumer Agency.

Technorati Tags:
CRTC, Consumer Agency, TPR

Last December, Minister Bernier announced a variance to the CRTC's local forbearance decision. This afternoon, the order was finalized, accelerating the deregulation of the industry. According to the Minister, this order is in the interests of customers and taxpayers, to deliver lower prices, recognizing the level of competition in major urban centres across the country.

The order was issued, despite a report from the Parliamentary Industry Committee (INDU) to withdraw the variance order, but it took into account the concerns of parties that provided responses to the consultation process, especially targetting the concerns of smaller cable companies.

The final order maintains the simple test that was set out last December, but clarifies a few points - it broadens and clarifies the definition of who are competitors, tightens the definition of a forbearance region.

The Telecom Policy Review panel had made an extensive number of recommendations to update the industry framework in a competitive global environment. Some of these will require legislative changes and it seems unlikely that the current incarnation of INDU will set aside politics to move forward on policies that should attract bipartisan support. Recall that the TPR panel was created under the Liberal government and its report was delivered to the current Minister. Still, we may need to wait for a majority government to bypass the tone of the committee meetings.

As we have noted before, it strikes me as more than a little ironic that the initial implementations of the TPR's recommendations are derivatives of cabinet appeals that may not be permitted when reform is completed.

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CRTC, Maxime Bernier, cabinet appeal, local forbearance, TPR

Yesterday, the CRTC denied an application from Videotron to add an adult channel from France to its list of available channels. Sorry, no link from me to that channel - I'll leave it to the creative among you to find XXL TV.

The CRTC noted that Canadian broadcasters are required, as a condition of licence, to have an internal policy for adult programming and adhere to it. Such policies include, among other things, requirements that all adult programming be screened prior to broadcast. Heck of a job, don't you think?

However, the CRTC recognized that not all jurisdictions apply similar requirements or have similar community standards.

... the Commission notes that non-Canadian services are generally targeted at their home markets or, in some cases, to international markets. Consequently, they are not necessarily influenced in their programming choices by standards that generally prevail in Canada. Further, with respect to non-Canadian services, the Commission does not have at its disposal the full range of enforcement mechanisms applicable to Canadian licensees, such as the imposition of a mandatory order to ensure compliance with conditions of licence or regulations.

Continuing to preserve sovereignty over domestic issues under its jurisdiction. Do parallels apply to other areas under the CRTC's jurisdiction?

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CRTC, XXL, Videotron

Michael Geist and I don't usually agree, especially on areas like government intervention into the marketplace. Still, I respect him and his perspectives.

I was somewhat surprised to see the tone in his Law Bytes column in the Toronto Star yesterday: "More Web regulation doesn't make any sense."

I have come to learn that columnists don't have much influence, if any, on what the headline writers choose to stick on top of our words. Imagine my surprise seeing the banner on Michael's column agreeing with me that we don't need more regulation on the net.

I found that some of the content in that piece coincided with a number of my viewpoints. Unfortunately, he wasn't writing directly about Net Neutrality. Instead his article had to do with new media regulation.

The market-focus in his language sounds a lot like mine and even that of Minister Bernier. It is quite encouraging to see. He speaks of content production migrating from the protection afforded by government regulation to one mandated by market survival.

How is it that market forces are fine in this instance? Isn't it a little inconsistent to acknowledge the benefits of light touch regulation for content production, but still be calling for net neutrality legislation?

Just as his article says, the CRTC had the right approach in terms of internet regulation 8 years ago with its new media decision.

Since that ruling, a remarkable array of new media services – including podcasting, Internet streaming and online video sites – have emerged outside of the traditional broadcast regulation model. Despite the success, recent submissions to the CRTC suggest that a growing number of stakeholders are increasingly wary of their unregulated counterparts and may be gearing up for a fresh look at Internet regulation.

I think the CRTC has sufficient tools in place to handle discriminatory behaviour.

Why not apply the same arguments for net neutrality? "Despite the success," why would we want to risk neutering the 'net with excess regulation?

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CRTC, net neutrality, new media

This week, we learn the nature of Cabinet's intervention into the CRTC's rules on local service deregulation.

Following two months of review, the Parliamentary industry committee has recommended that the Minister withdraw the variance, and instead table

a comprehensive package of policy, statutory and regulatory reforms to modernize the telecommunications services industry.

While some suggest that this would be an opportunity to introduce legislation regarding net neutrality and spam, the intent is likely much more broad - to adopt more completely the recommendations of the Telecom Policy Review panel. As I have noted numerous times, net neutrality advocates cannot take comfort if the TPR report is adopted as written. In any case, the legislative exercise will likely have to wait until after the next election.

There was a flare-up this week when the CRTC told TELUS that it was deregulating Fort McMurray, just as soon as TELUS meets the quality of service standards that have been set.

What was with the dust up?

The law of the land, as it currently stands, is what is set out in last April's CRTC ruling on Local Forbearance. Those rules are expected to change in the next few days, with the release of Cabinet's final version of its variance order from last December. Both the CRTC's original ruling and the Minister's preliminary variance had a two-stage test prior to forbearance: the existence of sufficient competition; and, acceptable levels of service being provided to competitors.

Didn't the CRTC accommodate the possible Cabinet changes in their phrasing?

The Commission approves the introduction of local forbearance in the Fort McMurray residential relevant market once [TELUS] has demonstrated that it has met the CQ of S [Competitor Quality of Service] criterion that will be in effect at the time of its CQ of S filing.

Doesn't that say that local service will be forborne under whatever rules are in place at the relevant time?

What are the hidden agendas?

Technorati Tags:
CRTC, Bell, TELUS, INDU, net+neutrality, local forbearance

Some people have been questioning whether the Canadian wireless telecommunications market is sufficiently competitive to benefit consumers. One of the signs would be rivalrous behaviour, including observations about whether carriers innovate.

William Shatner is coming to Toronto tomorrow for a Rogers announcement, with the official preview stating that he will be part of an announcement of a North American first.

I wonder if Captain Kirk's visit is related to a Star Trek communicator-like phone I found on the Source by Circuit City website, with two-way video calling capabilities - the Samsung A706R. There are other details about the phone and call plans buried deep within the Rogers website, including a description of a Vision Calling Plan, with unlimited video calling for 3-years.

Now you connect real time with your friends with live Video Calling. Switch your phone to Video Calling mode and you will see and hear the person you are talking to in real-time. Video telephony helps to preserve expressions, and other non-verbal cues. helping reconnect people during life's important moments. Other features include high speed data transferring and a 2MP camera and video recorder.

Two-way simultaneous voice and video sounds pretty cool. Rogers introduced HSDPA last November, with the Sierra Wireless card for mobile data access.

Can it get Scotty to beam me up?

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Rogers, William Shatner, Samsung A706R, HSDPA

Nokia Siemens Networks launches itself as a new company today. The firm represents the merger of the telecommunications network organizations from the two companies, with annual revenues in the order of $20B and positioned in the top three global share in each of wireless networks, telco services and wireline networks.

The venture begins with 60,000 employees, including 20,000 professionals working on the services side of the house.

Nokia Siemens Networks CEO Simon Beresford-Wylie will be delivering the closing keynote address on Tuesday June 12 at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit.

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Nokia Siemens Networks, Simon Beresford-Wylie, Canadian Telecom Summit