Rebtel

January 25, 2017

VoIP has to deliver more to avoid being PoIP – POTS over IP. VoIP providers can’t compete if their only advantage is deep discount pricing – ‘In a starvation contest, the fat guy always wins.‘

So, the incumbent players will win a price war. What are some of the more innovative applications for consumers and businesses?

Jon Arnold and Jeff Pulver have recently written about Rebtel, a company that is productizing an application that I have been doing on my own with VoIP lines set up for call forwarding.

Here is part of the idea:

  • In the US, consumers are now buying ‘big buckets’ of nation-wide calling minutes. I have a New York phone number that is set up to forward to my home line, which enables our US friends and family to call us (in Canada) using their virtually unlimited bucket of minutes.
  • I have set up a Toronto line to forward to each of my kids phones at school and set up a line in their university town to forward back to us in the Toronto area.

With Rebtel, you can take this concept to a global level. There were other companies playing with similar ideas, so watch your investments!

Will such arbitrage be effective enough to get cellular companies to be more realistic with their outrageous long distance rates?

Restless Restivo

August 28, 2006
Just got word that Kevin Restivo is leaving the National Post and joining Iain Grant and the folks at SeaBoard Group, effective September 5.

Best of luck to you, Kevin. The Post will miss the depth and complementary perspectives that you brought to supplement Mark Evans.

See you at the industry briefings.

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The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit

August 28, 2006
The leaves have started to turn red on some of the trees at our cottage. Packing up this past weekend included putting dustcovers on some of the kitchen appliances. It is a sign of the end of the summer, with only a week to go before the kids head back to school.

The other sign of the end of the summer is that work has already begun on The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit – June 11-13, 2007. We have already started contacting keynote speakers and we’re building the new website. There will be a new look to the website coming soon, but in the meantime, you can already sign-up for our mailing list – or even register for the conference, if you are really keen!

Drop us a note with your thoughts on panels and speakers that you would like to see.

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Stale dated

August 27, 2006
In the grocery stores, most products have a ‘Best before’ date stamped on the label, helping consumers ensure that the goods are still fresh. Unfortunately, regulatory filings and studies that are getting submitted to the government are missing such labelling. As a result, we have been seeing some of the same old complaints getting put back on the shelf once again.

Take the idea of the existence of competitive supply of advanced network access facilities, a subject we have written about in the past. One of the expert reports says

In order for a CLEC or IXC to furnish service to any location not connected to CLEC-owned facilities, the use of “last mile” facilities owned by the incumbent are the only option.

The only option? What about electric utility telecoms as an option? What about fixed wireless as an option?

The Telecom Policy Review panel suggested that many of the functions of the CRTC should be absorbed by the Competition Bureau. We may need to get the product labelling branch at the Competition Bureau to review these reports for their ‘Best Before’ dates.

I’d like to hear some fresh viewpoints. Something smells a little off.

While we’re on the topic of freshness, more than a week has past since the submissions were received and still none are posted on the Industry Canada website. OK, it’s summertime, but c’mon folks. You’re making it tough for everyone to be operating here. The other side of the river seems to be able to keep their website current!

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Countdown

January 25, 2017

Back in May, we wrote about the Federal Cabinet sending VoIP regulation back to the CRTC for a second look.

At the time, the CRTC was given 120 days to respond. Of course, Cabinet didn’t expect us to interrupt the CRTC’s work schedule last week with an urgent internet content issue.

Still, we should be seeing something next week before the Labour Day weekend.

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