Canada’s wireless carriers put emphasis on business services

The country’s three national wireless operators appear to be taking a harder look at the business segment as a key battleground in the Canadian context. All three operators believe themselves to be the leaders in this space, but that isn’t stopping them from pursuing the higher-revenue customer, namely the business user, with greater vigor. Ask representatives from Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility and Rogers Wireless to characterize the competitive environment for the business market and they will all say it’s highly competitive, but despite that they are winning their fair share of the net additions. Jim Jaques, senior VP of business marketing and sales for Bell Mobility, tells Report on Wireless that the company’s leadership in the business space comes from its vast portfolio of data services and applications, as well as its device line-up. "There is no carrier in Canada that comes close to the breadth and depth of our data applications," he says. Jacques sat down with RoW last month to talk about the company’s EvDO launch in several Ontario markets, as well as the uptake of the new services both among business customers and consumers. With respect to the business users, EvDO adoption is a no-brainer, he says, adding that IT professionals will understand the value. "The rational business customer, we think, is a really exciting prospect," Jaques says. "EvDO…runs at least five times faster than GSM or EDGE. It runs eight to 10 times faster than the old 1X network at the same or lower price per minute. Why would you not apply that kind of network power to your business?" Upinder Saini, VP of new products and content development at Rogers Wireless, says the company’s leadership in the business segment, particularly the small-medium business (SMB) space, comes from its data portfolio as well. "We’ve had that lead for a couple of years and we continue to maintain it, and that happens from several perspectives," he says. On the one hand, he explains, Rogers Wireless has a vast device line-up including the BlackBerry, the Treo, devices from Audiovox and Hewlett-Packard, all running on the GSM network, considered by many the worldwide wireless standard. "The second thing is we’re not just focused on the hardware piece, we’re looking at the full package and hardware is just one component of that whole package," Saini states. "We want to make sure that when we come out with a device, it comes out with several solutions and applications that will go with it." Chris Langdon, VP of wireless solutions at Telus Corp., says the introduction of EvDO will go a long way in attracting business users. "It will improve the user experience for mobile computing with broadband-like wireless speeds wherever you go," he tells RoW. "We think we’re at a point now where the is truly extensible into a wide area network where people are using a VPN application to to their office and all of their office applications." As for Telus’ performance in gaining net additions in the business segment, Langdon admits the market is contentious but that the company is doing well. " is very valuable and we think we have a network and a value proposition that’s unparalleled with this technology," he says. While all three companies maintain they hold leadership positions in the business segment, they are each going after the highly attractive and lucrative market in different ways. Bell appears to be focusing on the pure data aspect of its EvDO network and the rate plans that it is charging customers. Rogers Wireless is focusing to a large degree on the SMB market using productivity-enhancement-type applications. Telus, for its part, is also using an innovative rate plan as well as new productivity software. As Bell and Telus continue to rollout their EvDO networks to more centres across the country (Bell is in 15 markets, including Halifax, through a roaming agreement with Aliant, and Telus is in 11 markets), Rogers Wireless finds itself having to play catch up on the network speed aspect. The company is going to roll out high-speed download packet access (HSDPA), which will provide it with a speed premium over its two rivals, but that’s not going to happen for a year or so. That doesn’t deter Saini, though. "My opinion is that speed is more of a hype," he says, adding it’s more important to have compelling applications to run on that network. Saini refers to the BlackBerry where an email gets through almost instantaneously whether the network offers 10 kbps or 10 Mbps. "I think the critical thing that we need to keep in mind is the applications we’re focusing on and the applications the customers needs. Are we delivering those applications in an experience that is expected by them?" he asks. "The answer is yes, we are." Rogers Wireless added to its SMB application portfolio last month when in conjunction with iAnywhere, a subsidiary of Sybase, it introduced a new sales force automation application. Sales Anywhere for Salesforce.com promises to give mobile sales professionals access to customer information while on the go. "Whether at a customer site or traveling, Sales Anywhere users always have quick and reliable access to their Salesforce data, maximizing their productivity and effectiveness," reads an April 26 news release. Saini says productivity is a top-of-mind concern for SMBs. "They’re looking to become more productive, they’re looking to save time, they’re looking to become efficient and they also want to look like a big organization even through they are a small organization." Mobile professionals are looking to be able to take their suite of office applications with them on the road, similar to the functionality afforded by Salesforce Anywhere. While Rogers Wireless’ latest business application offering is targeted at the SMB space, Saini says there’s no reason why an enterprise customer can’t use it as well. He adds, though, the enterprise customer is usually looking for an application that can be controlled almost entirely by its own internal IT department. Bell’s Jaques tells RoW a key decision on pricing should help spur adoption of EvDO by the business customer, as well as consumers. Bell Mobility has decided to not up the price for EvDO services. "You’re getting an eight to 10-fold speed increase versus what 1X data was for no premium cost. The customer...I think will be delighted with that as a value proposition," he says. "Why would you not take advantage of that kind of performance lift at no premium cost?" Bell Mobility has also introduced a new rate plan designed specifically for the road warrior: $100 per month for 250 megabytes of data. Jaques says this is a lot of data and it would be hard to surpass the limit in a month. "We recognize that we think EvDO is going to create significant demand so we’ve made available better value packages at the higher end that didn’t exist before," he adds. Telus is also using innovative pricing to attract business customers. Langdon says a model based on days as opposed to megabytes makes more sense from a mobile business professional perspective. "We really think that when users start trying to understand what their application usage is and try to choose the correct megabyte-based plans, that’s often a confusing thing unless it’s a vertical application where there is a really well-understood usage profile," he tells RoW. Another key piece in Telus’ strategy is its support for multiple wireless platforms. Its recent introduction of a rival to BlackBerry mobile email service, Business Inbox in conjunction with Visto Corp., should go a long way to attracting more business users. "We do recognize that there is a burgeoning market for PDAs based on the Windows Mobile 5.0 platform and that’s becoming more popular as more devices start to get layered out," he says. The service comes in two flavours: one for smaller organizations and one for the enterprise segment or larger companies. Telus Enterprise Server is targeted at firms that want to implement a push email system similar to a BlackBerry service. Telus Desktop Redirector is for smaller businesses with minimal IT resources. Telus is also implementing a strategy that is aimed at getting the most out of its network facilities. The company makes its Connection Manager available for free to customers and it allows the mobile computing device to automatically select the best available option from its network of hotspots, 1X or EvDO networks.

Canada’s wireless carriers put emphasis on business services

News | 05/04/2006 4:00 am EDT

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