ROW Short Takes

Vidéotron launches VoIP service in MontrealVidéotron ltée’s Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony service that launched January 24 will soon be able to be accessed through hotspots around the world, company officials said during a conference call. Vidéotron president and CEO Robert Dépatie said the technology was already to go, but that consumer demand was not yet adequate to offer such a service commercially. "There is a timetable for that (Wi-Fi). Currently, we could offer that if we wanted…Our approach is a non-portable system…We’ve come up with a Wi-Fi virtual phone," he said. "So you can bring your phone anywhere in the world where you can find a Wi-Fi connection or a high-speed connection, and then with a few adjustments you will receive a call from anywhere in the world with a long-distance fee at the same number that you had originally from your place. So if you have a number in Montreal, you carry it with you across the world – anywhere there is a Wi-Fi connection. But according to our research, people are not quite ready for that." Départie said in the meantime that Vidéotron would finesse the Wi-Fi offering to ensure that the company comes up with the right product and the right quality. He was less sure about the possibility of adding a more traditional wireless phone option to Vidéotron’s bundle. "Being a CEO, I’m thinking always (about new products)," he said when asked about the possibility during the January 24 conference call. "We are no longer a cable operator. We feel that we are a telecom operator, so obviously I’m always looking at everything. It’s not part of our plan, but we’re looking at different opportunities to see if there’s a need for us to have a mobile phone." Voice over Wi-Fi has been in the works by several companies for some time now, and there are already commercial deployments of the service. One such case is the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, which has deployed Voice over Wi-Fi throughout all of its buildings. Vidéotron isn’t the only communications service provider exploring the possibility of extending VoIP services to Wi-Fi. Bell Canada announced last fall that it was conducting technical trials of Voice over Wi-Fi in the home. As well, BOLDstreet Wireless Internet and Concourse Communications Group, which outfitted Wi-Fi at Ottawa’s international airport, have said they hope to bring Voice over Wi-Fi to the airport within a year. Telus Mobility introduces Instant Talk PTT serviceTelus Mobility has beat its rivals to the punch and introduced a new push-to-talk (PTT) service over its PCS digital cellular network. Unveiled on January 17, Instant Talk is a lighter version of the company’s Mike business-oriented PTT offering. "In the last decade, the powerful PTT capabilities of our Mike’s Direct Connect service have made it the wireless tool of choice for Canadian business. Instant Talk now allows PCS clients entry into the world of instant Push To Talk Communications," Telus Mobility president and CEO George Cope said in a news release. Unlimited Instant Talk is available to customers as an add-on to most rate plans. Clients with rate plans greater than $40 per month can add the PTT service for an additional $10 per month, while those who spend less than $40 per month can get Instant Talk capabilities for $20 per month. The company has also announced that it will be extending the reach of its Mike business service beyond continental United States and Hawaii to Mexico and South America. Service expansion will be turned on later this quarter. Telus Mobility is working with its partner Nextel Communications Inc. to bring the service to Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Peru. Cope said: "Later this year, clients doing business in or with Mexico and South America’s largest countries will enjoy the same immediate contact advantages, from Burnaby B.C. to Brasilia to Bedford, Nova Scotia to Buenos Aires." Trellia Networks gets US$3 million in financingMontreal-based Trellia Networks Inc. has secured US$3.3 million in financing from Skypoint Capital Corp. to support the company’s ongoing development of its Nomad Mobility Platform. Nomad provides seamless roaming for a number of device types that operate on Wi-Fi and PCS technologies. The Montreal upstart has already had its Nomad platform verified by Tier One global operators and that was key in securing the financing from Skypoint Capital. "The rapid emergence of Wi-Fi and cellular data wireless technologies is creating new growth opportunities in the mobility market and we see Trellia Networks playing a key role in that space," Skypoint Capital partner Natalie Giroux said in a news release. AirIQ reorganizes business into five key unitsAirIQ Inc. has initiated a corporate reorganization that will see the company establish five strategic business units to maximize vertical market penetration. The reorganization comes as the Toronto-based company tries to better integrate three key acquisitions AirIQ made in 2004. The five market segments are: commercial fleets, consumer, vehicle finance, indirect distribution and marine. "Our reorganization plan with Ken’s appointment (see people item on page 7) is the next natural step of integration after the acquisitions of Aircept and Boatracs in 2004," AirIQ president and CEO Donald Simmonds said in a news release. Other key aspects of the reorganization include: combining shared expertise and operations such as technology, finance and corporate services; streamline technology solutions from 20 to five; operate a 24/7 customer service centre; and consolidate high-volume staging and shipping, and vehicular engineering in Irvine CA. SAMSys RFID readers selected for testing centreSAMSys Technologies Inc. has announced that its RFID readers have been selected and installed in a new test centre that will verify compliance with RFID tagging mandates from Wal-Mart, the Department of Defense, and other major retailers and organizations. The company says its readers were chosen because they support multiple tag protocols and frequencies, allowing tags from any supplier to be tested without having to install multiple readers. The centre, based in Sussex, Wisconsin, will function as a test lab allowing companies to evaluate different RFID tags and experiment with their placement on specific products in order to maximize read rate. The facility will also offer live RFID demonstrations including end-to-end product processing from packaging to RFID tagging, label printing and material handling. Dragonwave announces AirPair 200 availabilityOttawa-based Dragonwave Inc. has announced the commercial availability of its AirPair 200 broadband wireless gear. It provides data throughput rates at full duplex rates of 200 Mbps. The wireless Ethernet platform has already been purchased by a number of customers, providing reliable and high-bandwidth capabilities. The Palm Springs District School Board is one of those customers. Randy Gilbert, president of AirLinks Networking, the network deployment contracter, says the AirPair 200 provided carrier-class reliability, supported Gigabit Ethernet and was cost-effective to deploy. Mitec Telecom wins contract to supply gear to China marketMitec Telecom Inc. has announced that its products have been selected by a major Chinese OEM for inclusion in their latest wireless base stations. Product selection was made following a competitive tender process. The contract win covers multiple products at three different frequency bands, and is estimated to be worth approximately $20 million over the next two years. The products are among the first to be entirely designed by Mitec’s R7D team in Suzhou, China. They will also be manufactured locally. Spectrum Signal secures contract with defence agencyBurnaby B.C.-based Spectrum Signal Processing Inc. has announced that its flexComm HCDR-1002 platform has been selected by an unidentified international defence agency to support the development of a wideband communications intelligence application. Digital Dispatch expands beyond traditional verticalsDigital Dispatch Systems Inc. has been awarded a contract to supply 250 iPilot 8000 mobile computers to a major public transit agency in the western United States, marking another step in the B.C.-based company’s plan to expand beyond traditional vertical markets. The contract is valued at approximately $900,000. Digital Dispatch is a subcontractor and is, therefore, unable to disclose the other parties involved. The project will be deployed over Verizon Wireless’ network.

ROW Short Takes

News | 01/26/2005 5:00 am EST

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