Mobile Web - O Canada
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if you’re concerned about the lack of a Mobile Web in Canada, two items in the Montréal Gazette may well deepen your gloom.
Pierre Karl Péladeau, chief executive of Quebecor Inc., in a speech to a business group in Toronto, said new technology like Apple Inc.’s iPhone is being held back in Canada by the “oligopoly” of the three existing wireless operators owned by Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and Bell Canada Inc. With the lack of competition, data transmission costs are held at ridiculously high levels. As Péladeau said,
Canada has to throw off the regulatory yoke and give the private sector the chance to be entrepreneurial. By restricting access to new media, we are condemning traditional media to mediocrity and decline.
Apparently Péladeau was taken to task after his speech by Wade Oosterman, president of Bell Mobility, who said Bell offers unlimited data transmission for $79 a month, and unlimited Internet surfing for $7 a month. That’s not how Mathew Ingram sees that offer in his bitchy Canadian telecom post yesterday.
It’s all well and good that our dollar officially hit parity with the U.S. greenback today, but it sure would be nice if we could get something approaching real competition in the mobile telecom market in Canada. Then maybe certain carriers who shall remain nameless - but whose names start with a B and rhyme with “hell” - wouldn’t be able to pull stuff like this.
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Bell is promoting a $75-a-month “unlimited” data plan that uses a wireless PC card - but it has some pretty ridiculous restrictions. Not only does it have an umbrella clause that says you can’t use your connection in a way that “consumes excessive network capacity in Bell’s reasonable opinion,” but it also tells you what you can’t do with your connection.
The Gazette story just below the Péladeau item outlines another barrier in the march towards a Mobile Web. The iPhone, made by Apple Inc., has been available in Canada in a grey market. Rogers does not prohibit the use of foreign phones in its network, but the company has made it clear that devices acquired outside the company are not eligible for technical support. The device can be sold officially only through U.S. carrier AT&T, but last month a New Jersey student discovered how to hack it so it can work on other networks. According to some independent vendors of Rogers Wireless service, the cellular operator told its network of stores to stop activating accounts on the device, which has not been officially launched in this country. These vendors say Rogers wants to control the availability of the iPhone in Canada until it can sell the device in its own stores and on its terms.
According to the latest news Rogers is not buying Shaw despite the rumours. This would no doubt have given them similar organizational indigestion to that they exhibited in acquiring Sprint Canada. Hopefully they can now put their minds to how they can boldly grow the Mobile Web in Canada. It would be in their and our best interests.
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