The gloves are off as Telus sues Rogers: Canada's mobile network 3GPP convergence

Telus Corporation has filed a lawsuit against Rogers Wireless to discontinue its "misleading ad" campaign stating that the Rogers Wireless Network recently overlaid with HSPA+ capabilities, is the fastest and most reliable with fewest dropped calls in Canada. Testing of Telus' shared HSPA+ network will now be necessary to prove reliability and it was Telus that commissioned the earlier studies that reveal that it was indeed Rogers who had the fewest dropped calls in Canada. Telus will probably have to state why Bell Canada is saying its network, the same network used by Telus, is the fastest.
Telus' marketing team or at the very least the engineering heads should know that beyond the "fastest" term in the Rogers Wireless ad they will have to prove the rest of factors; fewest dropped calls and clarity, wrong. Having the same technical capability of 21 Mbp/s on the air interface of the cell site is one of a number of factors to be considered as they are also using equipment from different vendors. Then there is coverage and network footprint along with channel capacity, the user device, among factors to be considered. These are a few of the numerous reasons a call gets dropped.

Telus has made a good pre-emptive strike and I can imagine will stand to gain something from this exercise. Lets see how the story onfolds.

Telus to Join GSM World?

The Toronto Star reported today that Telus Corporation may soon be upgrading its CDMA network to a GSM system to join the networks supporting over 2 billion of the world's mobile phone subscribers. This speculation is against the background of Telus wanting to tap into the lucrative international roaming market ahead of increased wireless competition expected later this year. GSM provider Rogers is reported to have a lion share of the mobile roaming fees given the wide use of GSM worldwide. Telus has not commented however this is one to watch!

Canadian Wireless Spectrum to be auctioned next May

Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice announced yesterday that there will be a wireless spectrum offer May 2008 with 40% being reserved for a new entrant into the market despite protest from Bell, Rogers and Telus who have all indicated a preference for a free competitive bid. Th resistance by the three current service providers is louder as they feel that the market is fully served and does not need a fourth competitor who is subsidized by the government. The Wireless Competition alliance formed by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) had launched a website months ago to present their case to the Canadian public, however the government has decided to go ahead with the promised policy.

What will be the outcome of this auction? Will Quebecor Media Inc finally move into the wireless market?

WiMAX dealt a blow in the US market

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire Corporation might be abandoning their plans to build a Wireless Broadband network based on WiMAX technology according to a Wall Street Journal report published today. This turn of event would be a serious setback for the WiMAX standard as this could see mainstream equipment manufacturers moving away from wireless devices and networking gear based on the standard. More later.

RIM Shares up as Blackberry enters China!

Research in Motion shares jumped 8% today on the news that the Blackberry phones will now be marketed in China. CEO Jim Basillie made the announcement regarding the Alcatel-Lucent joint venture today which drove the company's share price to $120.42 on the TSX. This follows weeks of speculation as the markets were awaiting this long overdue announcement and reacted as expected. More

WiMAX now ITU Standard!

Last week was historic for the wireless broadband industry as it ended with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approving WiMAX technology as a part of the IMT-2000 set of wireless network standards. Thanks to the relentless efforts by the WiMAX Forum this tremendous milestone was achieved. The next step will be bringing service fees to acceptable levels as service providers and handset manufacturers converge. See full article from WiMAX Forum.

Rogers expands HSDPA to 22 Canadian markets

As Rogers Wireless continues the roll-out of its Next Generation wireless network (3G), HSDPA service is now available to subscribers in 25 Canadian markets. There is growing speculation that Rogers may opt to introduce the HTC iPhone to the Canadian market as a more technology capable mobile device, better suited for Rogers' network when compared to the hyped Apple phone. Rogers is currently promoting a suite of mobile video services codenamed "Vision" and this ongoing campaign coincides nicely with the recent HSDPA launch. Lets see how this one is played out.

Canadian Driving Made Easy-ier: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa now Offers GPS Traffic Information

A couple of my colleagues were very boastful recently after we all headed to an off site location and they got there before me after leaving a full 10 minutes later than my group did. The advent of commercial GPS navigation systems marked a most significant advance in driving. In recent weeks the added feature of real time traffic update for drivers has been made available to three major Canadian cities on east coast.

Drivers in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa are now accessing the Clear Channel’s Total Traffic Network which began broadcasting RDS-TMC data to Canada in early September. With this service GPS devices can access traffic information by way of a RDS-TMC receiver. The receiver accesses traffic information from FM radio broadcasts and passes this to the Garmin, TomTom or Mio GPS models that supports the system. GPS users are then notified about traffic status in the city due to traffic construction or accidents and could optionally provide alternate routes if required.

The prospect of a Google Phone

Google Inc could be in discussion with handset manufacturers and service providers to provide a "Google" type phone, Businessweek reported earlier this week. The proposed service would see subscribers receiving targeted location-based ads on their handsets as well as free call minutes when they viewed ads.

FCC faces media protests over "white space" use

The US FCC's plans to make available unused portions of the wireless spectrum assigned to media broadcast is facing protests. Broadcasters are trying to persuade the FCC not to allow wireless Internet services in the white spaces of TV spectrum. The group, named the White Space Coalition, comprising some of the biggest names in technology, including Microsoft Corporation, Google, Dell and Intel Corporation. The broadcasters are arguing that enabling portable wireless Internet services in the white spaces will interfere with signals and degrade TV service for consumers. The National Association of Broadcasters which includes Walt Disney's ABC division and Univision Communications Inc will start airing ads as a part of a campaign against this latest move by the high-tech coalition. More

Intel joins WiMax

Intel Corporation is investing heavily in WiMax development and recently released a roadmap for products to support the service. The company has outlined it's plans for deploying WiMax to different classes of users. This planned entry will see Intel joining Sprint Nextel and Clearwire Corporation as they lobby standards powerhouse IEEE to adopt and standardize a new technological pathway for WiMax. More

The future of Mobile Broadband

HSDPA and Wi-Max are leading the pack however much of the future will depend on the hardware and the alliances formed between service providers and hardware manufacturers.

Vodafone today joined the Wi-Max Forum citing that HSDPA will have served its needs at the end of the next 5 years. This move was welcomed by the Wi-Max Forum as an important first step however this should be an interesting one to follow.

Download Accelerators anyone?

When I read in April 2007 about Joseph "Yossi" Vardi's involvement in the Speedbit Download Accelerator venture, I was a bit curious given his noted contribution in the Instant Messaging field with Mirabilis' ICQ venture of the 1990s. Do we need a download accelerator with today's proliferation of high speed connectivity? Speedbit however, is now focused on the mobile computing market with the software being used for video downloads. This is definitely one to watch.

Apple's woes

Apple (Personal) Computer today issued a number of software releases and patches citing vulnerabilities and flaws in its product lines. This has been for some time a noticeable trend, with Apple featuring in CERT advisories and other security response agencies' reports. With all the hype and marketing dollars Apple is surely reaping the successes that comes with market share growth. Hope their customers will remain loyal and that growth will continue. Welcome to the PC club Apple! more

The new Blackberry i-Phone

RIM has announced the release of their 8820 Blackberry i-Phone which enable wireless voice and data access as well as WiFi access to customers. This device although equipped with GPS functionality as well as the other customary PDA features, is still missing support for 3G networks (HSDPA). more...

The Wi-Fi Roadmap.

With the growing proliferation of Wi-Fi devices the technology is being outpaced by the demand for the spectrum (2.4 GHz) and the different systems (Access Points, Bluetooth, cordless handsets, etc) requiring wireless access. The Orthognal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) air interface technology has to be traded in for a more efficient technology given that the frequency band in not licenced and is woefully congested and wrought with interference. The future of IEEE 802.11 probably lies in CDMA technology for more spectrum efficiency. First question that comes to mind is code management and how this will be handled by the IEEE in the evolution of the 802.11 standard as this path is explored.

Postini and the Google family

I thought Postini would have been target for Google a year ago when they launched a number of web-based applications. That being noted they have now acquired the SaaS and system management company for over $600 million. Interesting times as the industry and markets react.

The PDA evolution. From the Palm Pilot to the N95 and iPhone.

The PDA has evolved from a simple mini computer to a mini computer that has cell phone connectivity and Wi-Fi enabled. Yes, we had just upgraded our Palms when the BlackBerry wooed us with its mobile data capability. The Apple iPhone integrates popular touchscreen technology into a PDA with cellphone, GPRS and Wi-Fi capability. The i-Phone that tops my list is the Nokia N95 which is a quadband GSM and HSDPA (WCDMA 2100) phone.