Blackberry training

January 14, 2007
I first met Vikesh Anand at The Canadian Telecom Summit and we hit it off well. Vikesh is a relatively recent transplant to Canada, thanks to his wife getting relocated. He is an expert in mobile services in general and in Blackberry technology in particular.

Vikesh has a new blog called Toronto Techie. Welcome!

In the meantime, if you need help with getting your team up to speed in how to optimize their use of Blackberry applications, drop Vikesh a note. He is an approved education provider for the Real Estate Council of Ontario and he can tailor a training program for you.

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iPhone flurry

January 13, 2007
iPhoneTraffic on this blog has settled down after the flurry of iPhone mania starting on Tuesday afternoon. I had 3-4 times the normal number of visitors.

Virtually all of the hits were looking for information about upon which Canadians network and when would the iPhone be available on the north side of the border.

Perhaps not coincidentally, there has been a dramatic increase in activity on Rogers (TSX: RCI) stock, up 10% from $35 to $38.50 in the 3 days since iPhone was launched, with a noticeable spike on Thursday.

Nice to have pent-up demand.

What does iPhone do to iPod sales in the interim? What are the implications on wireless churn with number portability approaching? How many users will wait on the sidelines for the arrival of iPhone? And will Comwave, with its iPhone branded VoIP service, play any role as a spoiler in delaying Apple’s iPhone in Canada?

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Blocking Brazilian beach behaviour

January 25, 2017

Red Herring has another article that looks at the issue of a Brazilian court trying to give effect to its order to block access of a video of Daniela Cicarelli engaged in less than model behaviour on a beach.

Judge Enio Santarelli Zuliani asked ISPs in Brazil to unblock YouTube and tell him why they couldn’t just ban the video in question without denying access to the entire site. The ISPs replied that they don’t have that technology in place. The only way to stop access to the video, was to block YouTube.

The article quotes John Palfrey, a Harvard Law School professor and executive director of the school’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society:

Internet service providers are increasingly the enforcers of Internet laws. The broad trend of Internet regulation is toward a blurring of the public and the private. In order to get the enforcement done, states need the help of private intermediaries.

Would the Brazilian ISPs be more aggressive in deploying targetted blocking technology if the video in question was of another type – perhaps child exploitation? Would the blocking be able to be sufficiently refined if the Brazilian ISPs had already implemented Cleanfeed technology?

Western phone numbers: running on empty

January 11, 2007
CRTCThe CRTC has launched public processes to look at ways to deal with impending shortages of phone numbers in Alberta and British Columbia.

At the current rate, area code 250 (BC) will exhaust in a year. Alberta’s area codes, 403 and 780, will exhaust in late 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Public Notice 2007-1 looks at Number Planning Area (NPA) options for Alberta and PN 2007-2 looks at options for BC.

Advancing NPA exhaust is one of those signs of a booming economy.

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Three C’s for user created content

January 11, 2007
Michael Geist wrote a piece in the Toronto Star on Monday looking at the policy response to user created content.

In his article, he speaks of the government’s need to focus on 3 Cs – Connectivity, Content and Copyright.

Some may argue with Michael’s positions on the role of government versus the marketplace, especially in respect of connectivity, these issues merit serious discussion. At the very least, government needs to provide clarity and consistency, 2 other C-words, to allow the market to respond and flourish.

As Michael concludes:

Time Magazine’s decision to celebrate the participatory Internet leaves little doubt that the issue has moved from edges of cyberspace into the mainstream, forcing policy makers to confront their role in this exciting new world.

Political parties should be preparing their platforms with these issues taking a prominent position.

The regulatory blockbuster, on Wednesday June 13 at The Canadian Telecom Summit, features Canada’s leading thinkers and practitioners on telecommunications regulation and policy.

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