DECIMA’S NOTEBOOK : Rogers and Bell Together? You’re Kidding…

Telcos team for wireless broadband A few months ago, well-informed sources said Ted Rogers, CEO of Rogers Communications Inc., was annoyed about a financial transaction undertaken by rival BCE Inc. Now it seems Rogers might benefit from Bell’s move. Here’s what concerned the exec, according to some: in March, Bell invested $100 million in Clearwire Corp., a wireless broadband provider. But Rogers had already partnered with a Clearwire subsidiary, NextNet Wireless Inc., to develop Inukshuk Internet Inc., a wireless broadband initiative. Rogers (the man) seemed worried that Bell’s Clearwire investment would turn Rogers (the company) into an unwilling partner of the big telco. The CEO was right. And last month, the partnership actually bore fruit. In mid-September Rogers and Bell announced their joint plans for Inukshuk. The network combatants said they would pool their wireless spectrum holdings and pour $200 million into Inukshuk, extending the system to cover 40 cities, as well as 50 communities that currently lack broadband. They’ll continue to use NextNet’s wireless network gear in the endeavour. The announcement caught some people in the communication industry by surprise. Who knew Rogers and Bell, at odds over government regulation and technology choices, would end up playing together in the wireless broadband box? Their venture suggests network technology doesn’t only bring friends and colleagues together, sometimes it brings opposing operators together, too. Mind you, it’s not the first time Rogers and Bell have collaborated. The firms also joined forces to help build a national Wi-Fi network. Perhaps the Inukshuk announcement shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Rogers and Bell will compete against each other for wireless broadband business, while Inukshuk, the underlying network, belongs to both. The timing is right. Last month a federal government panel held a hearing in Whitehorse to discuss national broadband access issues. At the event’s core was a question: with 1.5 million Canadians lacking high-speed web access, should broadband be considered essential? (See Telemanagement #228) We’ll have to wait for the government’s panel for the answer. Meanwhile, in their statement, Rogers and Bell didn’t exactly tout Inukshuk as the broadband be-all, but it’s clear the venture aims to address the digital divide. "This is an efficient, effective and responsible approach to getting more high-speed Internet services to more Canadians more quickly," said Stephen Wetmore, Bell’s group president, national markets. Inukshuk’s backers also see this as an opportunity to provide a new sort of broadband connection. Subscribers will be able to log on to the network wherever it offers service, not just in their homes and businesses. Inukshuk will operate the network. Bell and Rogers will each have access to 50% of it to sell broadband services. Inukshuk plans to forge a roaming agreement with Clearwire, which is building a similar network in the U.S., so subscribers should be able to head south and still get connected. Sir Richard Pulls Sword on CarriersVirgin Mobile Canada founder Sir Richard Branson lashed out at the wireless industry last month for being too slow to implement number portability. In an open letter the daredevil exec (known for skydiving and trans-Atlantic balloon trips) lambasted the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) for suggesting that portability would come no sooner than two years from now. "This ... is an absolute disgrace," Branson wrote. "Canada’s mobile carriers are dragging their heels." During a press conference also in September, Branson called on the federal government to force the wireless industry to implement portability by 2006. "It would be popular and the right thing for a government to do," he said. Skype Going, Going, Gone for US $2.6 billionIndustry observers are scratching their heads over eBay Inc.’s decision to acquire Skype Technologies SA for US $2.6 billion. Why would a digital auction house want to run a VoIP service-essentially turning itself into a long-distance phone company? But perhaps we should have seen this coming. As Carmi Levy of Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ontario notes, "eBay has to act.... The growth of its core auction business has flattened over the past year.... It needed to find a way to energize its legacy offering." The much-hyped Skype could give eBay’s growth curve a boost, although Levy is not convinced the auction firm will be able to generate enough revenue from Skype to make the purchase worthwhile. Some estimates put Skype’s current revenue at only US $70 million per year. By contrast, eBay pulled in more than US $3 billion in 2004. Still, eBay’s acquisition is in step with other examples of convergence, such as Microsoft Corp.’s purchase of VoIP software vendor Teleo Inc., and Apple Computer Inc.’s announcement that its iPod portable music player would sport cellphone functions. A few years ago companies like Time Warner Inc. and America Online thought they could win some serious revenue by joining forces, but the promise of such "synergy" never materialized. Let’s see if the new mash-ups fare any better. Telus Workers Trickle BackTelus Corp. said in mid-September that 55% of its unionized workers in Alberta were at work, compared to 49% in mid-August. Reports said Telus gave MP3 players to employees willing to skirt the picket line. Telus made no report on British Columbia, where the majority of its employees work. Meanwhile, the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) targeted Telus CEO Darren Entwistle as the ringleader of his company’s "intransigence" in the labour dispute that saw workers in Alberta and B.C. go on strike in July. The TWU vowed to escalate its picketing and leafletting activities. An Alberta court curtailed picketers last month, forbidding them from touching vehicles entering or exiting Telus campuses. In August, Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW) president Buzz Hargrove sent a letter to Al Green, vice-president of General Motors of Canada Ltd., urging the car manufacturer to cancel a contract with Telus, whereby the carrier would give GM IP-Centrex service for $11 million. "It is totally unacceptable that GM Canada would ignore its relationship with our union and award a contract of this magnitude to a company that has its employees on strike for an extended period of time," Hargrove wrote.Late last month Telus and the TWU said they’d return to negotiations. Aliant Calculator on FritzThe Globe and Mail reported last month that Eastern Canada’s incumbent telco Aliant Inc. gave 5,000 customers the wrong amount owing on their Internet service bills. According to a company spokeswoman the mistakes ranged from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars between August 17 and 28. The telco said it would rebate the errors on the next bill. Web Cop BlotterHere are some interesting items about Internet crime, gleaned from various sources. In August a U.S. court indicted a man for selling software that could break into computers and log users’ web surfing habits. The man marketed the program as a way for people to find out what their significant others did online. Four people who purchased the program for US $89 were indicted for computer hacking. In August, police in Morocco and Turkey arrested two people for creating the Zotob worm, a digital demon that provided back-door access to computers, and infected U.S. government agencies. The Moroccan, Farid Essebar, might have authored as many as 20 other viruses, security experts said, after discovering Zotob and other viruses all sport a particular signature in their code, "Diabl0." Last month authorities in the U.S. said Zotob might have been part of a scheme to steal credit card numbers. A 17-year-old boy reportedly pleaded guilty in U.S. court to cracking telco networks, stealing someone’s personal information and posting it online. Spokespeople for the case didn’t name the victim, but one report pegs it as hotel heiress Paris Hilton. Earlier this year someone stole Hilton’s cellphone address book and published it on the web. The boy was also accused of cracking an ISP’s network, and of threatening a telco with a denial-of-service attack, which he and associates executed when the telco refused to reinitiate a friend’s cellphone. The boy was sentenced to 11 months of detention in a juvenile facility and two years of supervised release thereafter. He’s barred from using or owning a computer, cellphone or anything else with web access. Bell Brings Out VoIP over Analog Local LoopBell Canada unveiled its new Digital Voice product last month. The IP-based residential phone service is equipment-free-users need not hook the phones up to modems to connect. In fact, the new-age service uses the traditional analog local loop for connectivity to the Central Office, where the signal is converted to IP. Digital Voice provides voice mail to email transformation for easy message management, and multiple call-forwarding options: users can have up to 10 phones ring sequentially or simultaneously. Digital Voice also offers additional numbers in any of 23 Canadian cities for $4 each, and enhanced 911 capabilities to ensure that emergency services can find the caller when required. Bell offers the product for $40 per month not including the cost of a long-distance calling package. It’s available only in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario to begin with, but Bell said it would make the service available across Ontario and Quebec. Bell’s existing IP phone offering gets a new name, Digital Voice Lite. Meant as a secondary-line product, Lite requires a "voice adapter" to connect the phone to the IP backbone. Available across Ontario and Quebec, it costs $34 per month not including a long-distance package. Rogers Wireless Goes for Remote ConfigurationRogers Wireless Communications Inc. is one of the first mobile phone service providers to use Ericsson’s Automatic Device Configuration (ADC) tool, which allows Rogers’ reps to access and configure customers’ phones remotely. Ericsson said last month that ADC automatically detects the make and model of the handset; it lets Rogers improve customer service-users need not visit a Rogers Wireless store to have new features turned on, for instance. Palm Waves in OS BattleAfter selling its software division to Access Co. Ltd., Palm Inc. announced a joint venture with Microsoft Corp. that should see a new Treo smartphone sporting not the Palm operating system, but Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS instead. The partnership brings together former foes, Microsoft and Palm, who once battled each other for mobile OS dominance. News of the Microsoft-Palm plan followed reports that Palm’s profits were down by 7%, causing some people to wonder if the popular Treo had what it takes to keep the company flying. Avaya scoops NimcatAvaya Inc. purchased Ottawa peer-to-peer software maker Nimcat Networks for $46 million last month. Avaya said it would work to integrate Nimcat’s technology into its business communications equipment. Better Than SIP? Virttel is a small company with big plansBased in Smith’s Falls in rural Eastern Ontario, Virttel ("Virtual Telephony") with its three staffers supplies its fully featured Internet phone service plus unlimited Canada-U.S. long distance for $26.95/month (residential) or $69.95 (business). Additional business lines are $24.95 each. Its subscriber total has edged into the three figures.But Virttel is also an active player in the growing community in Canada using Asterisk, the leading open-source IP-based PBX software. (See Telemanagement #219) And Virttel aims to utilize its Asterisk know-how to target the business client, "our core niche market." As a first step, Virttel supplies a "peering service," mostly for other Asterisk users. "We provide telephones, ATAs , security, network distribution, and access to the PSTN and the Internet," says vice-president Larry Benedet. Clients are concentrated in Ontario, but some are in Vancouver, the U.S., or overseas. Virttel has also developed Asterisk-based business phone and call centre systems-essentially a form of IP-Centrex-which are now being tested in beta. The company aims to launch service by year-end. These products use a modified version of Asterisk’s AIX2 protocol. Benedet insists that AIX2 is superior to SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), which the big PBX makers regard as the leading-edge protocol. "SIP requires additional hardware to enable proper network traffic within the LAN. Also, it is not encrypted, and adding encryption costs you in terms of increased latency." AIX2, with its built-in encryption, has overcome both problems, Benedet says. Of course, few visionary high-tech startups have the business skills and sheer good luck to survive. But the mere fact that tiny organizations like Virttel are undertaking such ambitious technological ventures speaks volumes about the disorganized and dynamic state of our industry. Hurricane Katrina News Round-upHurricane Katrina took out about 1.7 million communication lines on the U.S. Gulf Coast in August. Soon after the storm, long-distance networks presented callers into Louisiana with "all circuits busy" messages. AT&T Corp. lost DS-3s between New Orleans and Jackson, Missouri, and between New Orleans and Gulfport, Mississippi. Approximately 15% of Cingular Wireless II LLC’s network was affected. Iridium Satellite LLC received requests from many emergency organizations seeking connectivity. Telcos received permission from the government to port numbers to out-of-state locations. Early last month Bell South Corp. said it would take about 30 days to restore service to most customers. The telco also said its restoration efforts were hampered by companies and residents inadvertently cutting phone lines while digging to repair other infrastructure.

DECIMA’S NOTEBOOK : Rogers and Bell Together? You’re Kidding…

News | 10/03/2005 4:00 am EDT

To keep reading, get a free trial.

Already a Subscriber?

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us