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

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

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

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

The article is worth a read.

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

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

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

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

As the article says:

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

How much should regulators intervene in a competitive marketplace?

Technorati Tags:
FCC, wireless

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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