It has now been a year since I began this blog. February 20, 2006.

Since then, I have written nearly 550 posts, providing fresh viewpoints related to telecommunications. Something new almost every day of the year.

I hope I have engaged you as readers, challenged you re-examine industry issues from a different perspective, provoked you to explore alternatives in your own policy convictions, and sometimes entertained you with trivia.

In the course of debate on certain issues, I hope that I have not insulted you and I regret anything that may have caused hurt.

I still consider myself to be new at blogging and believe that most of us, both writers and readers, are still trying to learn how to best use this medium. Thank you for joining me on this exploration.

Certain topics have attracted more attention than others; my posts about internet content blocking and the launch of iPhone drove spikes in traffic. What do you want to hear about?

Drop me a note or enter a comment once in a while to share your views.

In my posting earlier this morning, I asked “Any users willing to admit being antique suscribers?” The I read an article on PwC’s Communications Direct news digest, called “Oldies Phones: The Next New Frontier“, extracted from Telecom Web.

The story talks about a company that has a phone to meet the needs of the under-served seniors market – bigger screen, bigger buttons, easy-to-use menu. Market niche? Of 110 million seniors in Europe, only 17% have phones. There is an opportunity in this grey market.

Dig out those old brick-sized phones from the box in the basement!

Technorati Tags:
mobile, PwC, seniors

Friday’s Telecom Decisions from the CRTC consisted of approval of the withdrawal of a couple legacy services by TELUS and by Bell / Bell Aliant.

In TELUS’ case, it was granting authorization to halt its old Manual 150 Mobile Telephone Service from the ILEC serving territory in Alberta. At the other end of the country, the Bell group was authorized to de-standardize a legacy delivery of SMDR – call records.

These two CRTC orders serve as an opportunity to point out the regulations associated with withdrawing services, found in a May 2005 circular. It is a reminder that the ILECs continue to have an obligation to provide all of the services set out in their tariffs, even those that are obsolete, until the CRTC approves otherwise.

I was surprised that manual telephone radio still exists – you would think that customers would be embarrassed using it, instead of flipping open the latest cell phone. Any users willing to admit being antique suscribers?

Technorati Tags:
Bell, TELUS, CRTC

Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski told the 3GSM show in Barcelona that 3G just isn’t delivering on its promise for wireless. See the article at Light Reading.

According to the story, 3G has been disappointing, not just to Zafirovski but also Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO Designate of Nokia Siemens Networks.

Nortel CTO John Roese has written his personal reflections on 3GSM at his blog. He comments:

As I described it to a few folks, the industry focuses on ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) as a measure of opportunity. The problem with that is that in most markets today the assumption is that there are few, if any, users who are not already on a mobile network, which means the only way to grow is to charge each user more for the use of the network by their device. Obviously, mobile phone plan prices are not cheap, so the ability for the customer to pay more is pretty limited. On the other hand, if you focus on hyper-connectivity, you create a system where, in the ARPU equation, the U (user) value can grow dramatically as you add entirely new classes of devices to the mobile network.

I’ll add that increases in the R (revenue) value of ARPU may be tied to the degrees of freedom service providers have in developing creative business models to monetize the additional device connectivity.

Will bounds be placed on creative freedoms tied to Net Neutrality, especially as the debate migrates to wireless networks? Carriers and infrastructure suppliers will need to participate actively, articulating a vision for policy makers.

The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit will feature a keynote address from Simon Beresford-Wylie on Tuesday June 12. John Roese, will deliver the closing address on June 13.

Technorati Tags:
Nortel, Siemens, Nokia, John Roese, Simon Beresford-Wylie, Canadian Telecom Summit

With Rogers and TELUS reporting their financials after the markets closed on Thursday, we have a chance to compare the performance of the 3 main players in Canada’s wireless market. We already commented on Bell’s disappointing 4th quarter results.

Rogers beat its guidance on wireless net additions and it appears that Rogers’ prepaid numbers picked up all of Bell’s prepaid losses. In that most price sensitive market, with no contracts to constrain their movement, customers marched away from increased rates and higher System Access Fees. All three carriers increased ARPU – all three had declining net additions.

Cost of acquisition per customer declining means lower marketing expenses. Were carriers keeping their powder dry in anticipation of blowing the big bucks for next month’s number portability launch? What other factors are keeping adoption rates in Canada low? All three carriers saw churn improve – to what extent were customers sitting tight, waiting for an opportunity to switch with WNP?

There is a lot of opportunity for continued growth in Canadian wireless with penetration rates experiencing steady growth, but still well behind most of the rest of the world.

Will one of the carriers break ranks to try to grab much more than their fair share of the great unserved segment?