Summer is now officially over. It is after Labour Day – put your white shoes away until Easter. Kids returned to school and are writing about what they did this summer; traffic has returned to normal. My road trip is coming to an end and it is time to get down to work.
As a result, this time of year also marks the beginning of our call for speakers for The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit, which will take place June 15-17 in Toronto.
If you want to propose a speaker or session, just contact us.
Among the points I raised in the story was whether there is sufficient understanding of on-line polls.
In the old days, businesses used to operate on the assumption that if they got one angry letter from a customer, it meant there were 10 more people out there who likely felt the same way. But with an online poll, you have no idea how many people it represents. Does an online vote represent 10 people, or does it even represent half a person?
It would be nice to see some academic research on this.
As I write this post, we are 2500 miles or 4000 km into our road trip.
Our route took us from Toronto to Chicago, then down to St. Louis and Joplin, Missouri. We rode mainly on the interstates – with frequent diversions onto the historic Route 66 – as we went through Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Amarillo, Texas.
As we ate spectacular Mexican food in the Old town of Albuquerque, my son had an observation. Why would people go to Taco Bell in the South West when places like “La Hacienda” are so accessible? And yet, truck stops in every small town seemed to sport the familiar national brands; you needed to head an extra block down the road – Route 66 – to find the local “Craig’s Burrito” shack across from the local high school football field (a scene in Shamrock Texas that seemed right out of “Friday Night Lights”).
As the various new entrant wireless telephone companies put together their business plans, how will they try to differentiate themselves from the big national brands? Can they expect consumers to take side trips onto the old Route 66 to sample the unique local flavour?
Don’t miss an opportunity to try “Deep fried pie” if you’re ever presented with it at a roadside stand near the Texas / New Mexico border. And by the way, we had great Mexican food at La Hacienda in Old Albuquerque, despite having made made a wrong turn.
Blogging may be spotty this week – I am on a road trip with limited on-line access (anyone able to catch the connection to the graphic on this page?). So far, we have covered 2100 miles, en route to Caltech, which we should reach late in the week.
Most interesting is that we have maintained continuous cell phone coverage, throughout the desert in New Mexico, even when AM radio was pretty spotty. 3G is spotty, but EDGE has been almost continuously strong.
Now that the airlines are outfitting seats with internet in the air, maybe car rental companies will consider offering affordable pay-as-you-go mobile broadband.
When I was at a recent analyst conference, I spoke with some people who have deployed HSPA as a mobile internet access system to be offered to passengers in airport taxis.
Domestic networks are making mobile broadband data affordable for most applications; the affordability of international roaming is a continued challenge (and high roaming charges isn’t just a Canadian issue).
There are ways to manage your international voice calling with prepaid SIM cards. What are your experiences with data access while travelling?
Keep those cards and letters coming. And yes, we did make a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Call me next week and I can tell you all about it!
Alec Saunders has said that for him, the next election is all about Bill C-61, the government’s plan to reform Canadian copyright legislation.
I have written a number of times over the past 6 months [eg. here and here] about executing on a national broadband strategy. Will any of these ideas make their way onto election platforms?
