In its battle for mobile-data service dominance, Bell Canada is bumping up the speed of its CDMA-based network to provide 3.1 Mbps downloads and 1.8 Mbps uploads. Bell has also introduced two Novatel Wireless Inc. data-access cards, one in PC card form, the other ExpressCard. As well, Bell said it's now offering Research In Motion Inc.'s (RIM) BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone, which operates on North America's CDMA networks and the GSM networks that are more common in Europe. With new features such as wireless number portability on the mobile landscape, Bell and other carriers have been adding novel services, such as video, business-specific applications and speed enhancements, to win more customers.

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The CRTC has issued Telecom Public Notice 2007-6, a proceeding "to examine its existing regulatory measures in light of the criteria set out in the Policy Direction so that it can be applied in future applications." The commission wants to deal with the most important issues first and do it a timely manner. Therefore the CRTC is seeking comments on which regulatory measure to review, what priority should be place on each measure, and how long is reasonable to complete the review. "The commission expects to issue an action plan that will set out its review of existing regulatory measures in order to implement the Policy Direction by 11 July 2007," reads the public notice.

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BCE Inc. hopes to have completed the strategic review process announced on April 20 by the third quarter of 2007, the company noted in a news release. In the statement, released on April 29, the communications conglomerate notes that it wants an open and competitive process. "For that reason, our goal from the beginning has been to foster a competitive process by seeking to ensure that no one party is able to assemble a disproportionate share of available Canadian equity," Strategic Oversight Committee chair Donna Soble Kaufman said.

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A new report from Strategy Analytics says that regulatory delays are hampering the availability of mobile TV spectrum in Europe and this could lead to a two- to three-year delay in DVB-H adoption. "These regulator delays, combined with the success of ISDB-T in Japan, the momentum of DMB services in Korea, the commitment of the two largest operators in the US to using MediaFlo, and the rising chorus of support for MBMS is 3GPP2 will create a much more fragmented mid-term for mobile TV adoption globally," said Chris Ambrosio, a director in Strategy Analytics' wireless practices.

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Hatim Zaghloul, the founder of Wi-LAN Inc. and the creator of OFDM wireless technology, appears to be making a bigger wireless play with his latest company's acquisition of Fatport Corp. from Ignition Point Technologies Corp. PowerStar International Inc. announced yesterday that it had reached an agreement to acquire the independent hotspot operator for approximately $1.2 million. "We plan to strengthen the existing strategic relationships and forge large scale relationships with [the] worldwide advertising marketplace to provide contextual messaging which should generate significant revenue and enhance customer experience," said Zaghloul, CEO and chair of PowerStar.

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Tranzeo Wireless Technologies Inc. and Wavesat Inc. have inked an agreement to collaborate on the development of new WiMAX customer premise equipment (CPE). The CPEs will incorporate chips from Wavesat and will serve both the consumer and business markets. "WiMAX has enormous potential as a last-mile wireless broadband access solution, and we are very pleased to be working in partnership with Wavesat who shares our commitment to cost-competitive, high-performance products," said Tranzeo president and CEO Jim Tocher. Tranzeo has also introduced a new mesh networking router, the EnRoute500. The routes can automatically detect other routers to form a network. "The ability to offer a true mesh solution in out line up of products allows our company to compete in the growing municipal mesh marketplace around the world," explained Tocher.

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