TELUS mobile music

January 25, 2017

Last summer, I asked when will TELUS launch the LG Chocolate, the phone that looks like an iPod. Verizon’s launched the phone in July.

The Chocolate is now available and I would expect it to lead some hot sales during the upcoming Christmas season. TELUS is calling the campaign Hot Chocolate, bundled nicely with a set of Bluetooth headphones and a 1GB memory card. Yesterday, TELUS announced an accompanying ‘all you can eat’ mobile music plan to help fill up that memory card. For $20 per month, download all the music you want to the Chocolate and a few other TELUS MP3 enabled phones.

Mobile Music is a differentiator for TELUS, especially knowing that Rogers is set to launch its own GSM version of the Chocolate (with a slightly different keypad) next week.

Interesting question: can the music I download to my phone be transferred to my other devices as well? We note that TELUS CEO Darren Entwistle has spoken about copyright issues [Oct 18 Ottawa Chamber of Commerce as reported by Michael Geist]:

copyright has to be flexible enough to permit Canadians to use and transfer legally obtained copyrighted materials – like songs and TV programs – from one technology to another. . . from their TV to their PVR, and from their ipod to their mac

So, what about moving Mobile Music from my cel phone to my PC and iPod?

Selling Telecom Policy Reform

January 25, 2017

About a month ago, a bunch of us were asked “how do you convince non-telecom people that telecom policy reform matters?” Why would the average citizen care about telecom policy reform? Why would this issue rank above, say repairing pot-holes on the government agenda?

We have a cookbook in the report of the Telecom Policy Review Panel – a recipe for reform that has been sitting since late March. A cup of this, a teaspoon of that – changes to the CRTC, a new consumer advocacy panel, a little this, a little that. But it isn’t clear that we have seen a clear picture of the final product. You know, that image of a sizzling crispy dinner coming out of the oven to make you want to run out and buy the ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ thing.

What is the grand vision? The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Where is the rainbow?

In order to move telecom policy reform higher in the priorities of average Canadians, we need to grab their imaginations. We need to demonstrate relevance. What is the vision of tomorrow’s communications environment in order to adequately describe the need to change the regulatory model?

The future of communications is more than just the web – so selling Telecom Policy Reform is more than simply countering the recent Maclean’s cover story.

We need to see a vision laid out that describes a better, safer, cleaner, more fun tomorrow. Will we be followers, importers and adopters of other countries’ communications technologies and services? Or will be be creators, exporters and leaders?

What is your vision?

VoIP policy ping-pong?

January 25, 2017

We’re coming up to the deadline for Cabinet to accept or reject the CRTC’s VoIP reconsideration. On September 1, the CRTC affirmed its original decision that voice is voice, regardless of the underlying technology that provides the service. It launched a proceeding to review the criteria to liberalize all types of local phone service, but said that, on review of its original decision, the CRTC was correct that IP telephony should not be handled differently.

The Telecom Act allows Cabinet 90 days to ‘vary or rescind’ the CRTC’s September 1 decision.

The clock is ticking. Minister Bernier is booked for a couple speaking engagements this week. Will he make changes to VoIP regulation?

Is wireline telephony dying?

November 13, 2006
Two and a half years ago, Om Malik spoke about a study from Probe Group that spoke of the impending death of the fixed line business model – to be replaced by wireless. As it turns out, the research group that produced the warning disappeared well before the wireline business did.

Is wireline telephony going away? The attraction of traditional landlines is in decline. Fax usage is diminishing. Second lines for dial-up internet are pretty much historical artifacts. So, at least some of the decline in number of residential lines in the recent past may be attributed to changes in adoption of second lines.

On the business side, VoIP-based systems change the way we need to count enterprise lines. Business PBXs may use numbers without corresponding lines or ‘Network Access Services’.

Still, wireless substitution is a reality that needs to recognized. A new report came out last week warning the cable companies of the same troubles that Probe forecasted in 2004: the risk of going after a share of a dying business. On the other hand, a refutation of the report says that the fixed line market is so big that it is still attractive for cable companies. Which is it?

It is worthwhile looking at the Canadian cable approach – cable companies with both wireless and wireline offerings. Among such companies, Rogers is best positioned operating with its own wireless facilities, the largest national mobile services provider, bundling with its cable-based services in Ontario and parts of Atlantic Canada, and telephony wireline in the rest of Canada.

With a different angle, Videotron announced Duophone, offering unlimited calling between Videotron wireless residential cable telephone subscribers.

With nearly two thirds of the wireless market tied up in the hands of incumbent telephone companies, there may have been conflicting incentives for the mobile operators to aggressively target wireline substitution.

Videotron appears prepared to disrupt the stability of the marketplace. Their approach is non-traditional.

Among questions to ask: will Videotron bid for spectrum in the next wireless auction?

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Music on hold

November 12, 2006
What irony. I am sitting on hold at a call centre, with music interrupted only by a periodic announcement that my call is very important to them, and Elton John’s Rocket Man came on.

Here I am, at the 15 minute mark, listening to “and I think it’s gonna be a long, long time.” Really encouraging.

Note to call centre managers: pull that song from your music queue. But it was great foreshadowing, or a good warning. I was on hold for 45 minutes and that was with my call being “very important” to them. I feel sorry for the unimportant callers.

Anyone have other songs that don’t seem right for call centres? Operators are standing by. Your call is very important to me. But, you may find it easier to just click on the ‘comments’ link.

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