Skinny-golfing

June 19, 2007
TELUSOne of the features of The Canadian Telecom Summit is the opportunity to network with colleagues in the industry that you otherwise might not get to see – to schmooze. Except that I was a little tied up at the conference.

So, I am making up for that by going to the TELUS World Skins match for a couple days this week.

Strictly business.

I promise not to have any fun.

I’ll be meeting with people and … ummm … checking on the reliability of wireless data from rural Ontario. That makes it a research trip. Yeah – that’s it.

By the way, yesterday, on the way back to my northern office from the Raven at Lora Bay golf course, we passed a sign for the “Fry Guy” advertising portions “from Small to Honkin’ Big.” We turned the car around to get a honkin’ big order – $7.40 including all taxes for the equivalent of 3 mediums. It’s a long drive to Bracebridge. If you ever find yourself on Horseshoe Valley Drive heading north of Hwy 26, look for the Fry Guy on the east side of the road. Be sure to check out the view from his gazebo.

Sometimes, you just have to stop and smell the french fries.

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Web dialogs can really suck

January 25, 2017

Last December, I wrote about the 4 degrees of impersonal communications. The posting spoke of the way some people seem to lose sight of courtesy and common sense in their communications over “new” media.

Face-to-face communications (a first degree interaction) has no record, no evidence beyond the memory of the participants. Telephony (second degree) may have a record, such as an audio voice message. Email (3rd degree) gets circulated, over and over. Thanks to search engines and web-archiving tools, the web (4th degree) offers a permanent record.

Paradoxically, we seem to take more care in communications when the conversation can most easily be private and candid. Conversely, we pay less attention to etiquette and courtesy when the audience is global and of diuturnal impact.

Many of those who write or leave comments on blogs – and especially those that don’t even have the courtesy or intestinal fortitude to use a real name – use language or tone that simply doesn’t pass for reasonable discourse except perhaps in certain TV reality shows. Every time I get a comment notification, I brace myself for a tone that is too often uncivil.

My intent is to get my reader to look at issues a little differently – I am pleased when I can inflame your interest – I guess it means that I may be inspiring your thoughts with passion.

Mark Evans looks at Mathew Ingram‘s piece about on-line defamation from the Globe.

My own experience disagrees with Mark’s statement that the blogosphere “has been fairly libel and slander-free.”

Any other viewpoints?

Free and unfettered auctions

June 17, 2007
Bangor LodgeOne of our typical summer activities is visiting auctions in Muskoka. Sometimes there are great bargains for things you had no idea that you needed. Like snowshoes. In June.

Yesterday, there was an auction at the site of Bangor Lodge – a resort that changed hands last October. Everything was sold off to the highest bidder, even the cabins. You name it, they sold it. Golf carts, dishwashers, towel folders, lawn mowers, high chairs, air conditioners, etc. Even the fence that surrounded the old tennis courts.

It got me thinking about the upcoming auction of spectrum and how some folks think that Canada needs to provide incentives for new wireless companies to get into the business.

I get the sense that Canadian hotels are more expensive than US hotels. We don’t seem to have as many motels as the US. Maybe it is because there isn’t enough competition. Not as many advanced hospitality services as well. Where is the innovation? France has hotels with automatic check-in. The US has motels with marriages performed on-site. Not just in Vegas – but coast-to-coast – even in Anchorage.

Why was there no call for a new entrant set-aside at the auction yesterday at Bangor Lodge? Some simple mechanism to help competitors get into the hotel and resort business. The prices for golf resorts in Muskoka just don’t seem competitive compared to our major trading partners. There are all sorts of advanced hotel services available in the US that aren’t in Canada.

I would love to see an analysis of Canadian lodging rooms statistics compared to the US.

At least we will likely rank ahead of Ghana.

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Downtime

June 15, 2007

Posts to this blog will be a little later in the day – The Canadian Telecom Summit is over – I can sleep a little later now.

Despite the beautiful hot weather, it isn’t Miller time.

I expect to be nibbling on some of the hundreds of mints left over from the conference that Jules liked so much. I’m concerned that they might have a strange interaction with beer like the famous YouTube videos.

So I’ll stick to red wine thanks. Anyone do experiments with Mentos and Shiraz?

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Should Aliant bid for spectrum?

June 15, 2007

AliantWill Bell Aliant bid on spectrum in the upcoming AWS auction? Should it be thinking about it?

When Bell Aliant was transformed, its wireless assets were traded to Bell Canada as part of the shuffle. As a result, Bell Aliant is an extremely large ILEC with no wireless spectrum of its own.

What happens if Aliant becomes independent of Bell in the wake of a shift in the ownership of the mother-ship? Would the private equity owners spin out Bell Aliant? Will Aliant’s executive team and its independent trustees consider spectrum options to safeguard minority unit holder interests?

Is Bell Aliant considered to be a “new entrant” under an auction regime that supports incentives for increased competition?

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