BREAKING NEWS: Canadian Government Grows A Pair And Agrees To Review Globalive/Wind Mobile Decision

Will wonders never cease? According to the Globe And Mail, the Canadian Government has agreed to review the CRTC decision to deny Globealive/Wind Mobile the right to operate in Canada. Tony Clement who is the Industry Minister had this to say to the Globe And Mail:

Mr. Clement says the government believes in competition in the telecom industry.

He says the addition of new cell phone companies is going to be of benefit for consumers.

Wow. There is hope for a competitive wireless market in Canada. This is the best news that one could hear on a Friday afternoon. Now the question becomes, will the Canadian Government actually do the right thing and overturn the CRTC decision. If they really wanted to impress me, they could just destroy the CRTC along with reversing this decision. To borrow a phrase from the movie “Aliens”, nuke them from space. It’s the only way to be sure.

It’s time for Canadians to put pressure on their Government.  Start e-mailing your MP’s today if you want a competitive wireless market in Canada.

CRTC Denies Throttling Appeal

With the decision about Globealive/Wind Mobile yesterday, I forgot to mention the other craptastic CRTC decision that was released yesterday. The CRTC threw out a “review and vary” request from the Canadian Association of Internet Providers to stop Bell Canada’s throttling activites:

In this decision, the Commission determines that the applications by CAIP et al. and Vaxination do not raise substantial doubt about the correctness of the determination in Telecom Decision 2008-108 that the throttling process Bell Canada relies upon does not engage section 36 of the Telecommunications Act. The Commission also determines that the applications do not raise substantial doubt about the correctness of Telecom Decision 2008-108 with respect to the completeness of the record used to make that decision or to the fettering of the Commission’s discretion. The Commission closes the remainder of the applications in light of Telecom Regulatory Policy 2009-657.

That sucks.

The only part of this that can be considered to be positive is that the CRTC said that the throttling must be in compliance with the new framework that CRTC set out in their decision last week. Because of that, you can expect that something will get filed either by Canadian Association of Internet Providers or by somebody else that will argue that the throttling activities by Bell do not meet that framework.

You know, looking at this and the Globalive/Wind Mobile decision, it really highlights the fact that the CRTC is completely out of touch with reality and needs to be replaced or eliminated. And the sooner, the better. I say we start with petitions like this one.

Globealive/Wind Mobile Responds To CRTC Decision

Yesterday the CRTC decided that Canadian ownership was more important than real competition in the Canadian wireless marketplace. As a result, it appears that Globealive/Wind Mobile’s launch won’t happen for the time being. Globealive/Wind Mobile responded to this yesterday by putting out a press release that said the following:

“Having already received approval from Industry Canada, we are extremely disappointed that the CRTC has come to a different conclusion,” said Anthony Lacavera, Chairman, Globalive Wireless Management Corp. “This is a bad day for Canadian consumers. Canadians deserve competition in wireless and this decision represents a major step backwards.”

And:

“WIND Mobile had planned to launch in the coming weeks. We have pulled together an excellent team of more than 500 people and had built a strong network and operation across the country. We are ready to bring competition to the market.” said Ken Campbell, CEO of WIND Mobile. “We will be evaluating our options on how to proceed.”

So it sounds like they’re not going away. My guess is that they’re going to appeal directly to the Canadian Government as that would be the fastest way for them to get this resolved. The Toronto Star for one points out that they may have a shot if they do that because of the fact that the Conservative party runs the country at the moment:

Conservatives, historically, have been frigid to the CRTC, which they see as a blight on the free market.

Stay tuned. This fight is not over yet.

iTunes Update Stops Palm Pre From Syncing….. Yet Again

To paraphrase the Cylons, it’s happened before and it just happened again. The latest version of iTunes which was punted out to the planet yesterday by Apple has once again stopped the Palm Pre from syncing with it. So, the only question that really matters is this: Will Palm finally do the right thing and do what RIM has done which is to write software that can access an iTunes library without having to pretend to be an iPod, or will Palm just continue with the same craptastic nonsense of pretending to be an iPod. This cat and mouse game that they’re playing doesn’t help their users who are likely sick of this circus by now.

So Palm, will you finally do the right thing? Will you?

BREAKING NEWS: Globealive Wireless/Wind Mobile Fails Ownership Rules Says CRTC

The news has just come in that Globealive Wireless/Wind Mobile has been told by the CRTC that it fails to meet Canadian ownership rules:

In this decision, the Commission sets out its determination in the proceeding initiated by Telecom Notice of Consultation 2009-429, in which it undertook a review of Globalive’s ownership and control. In its review, the Commission considered whether non-Canadians do not own or control Globalive as currently structured. The Commission determines that Globalive does not meet that test. The Commission therefore determines that Globalive has not met the requirements of the ownership and control regime and is therefore not currently eligible to operate as a Canadian telecommunications common carrier.

You can read the full decision here. This basically means that Globealive is forbidden to start up this November. It also means that real competition isn’t coming anytime soon to the Canadian wireless market. Which means that the Canadian consumer is the big loser here. Now Globealive can appeal this decision, but that takes time and cash. Given that, I’m not getting my hopes up.

Another thing that I am sure the media isn’t going to talk about. Globealive has been on a hiring spree. What happens to all of those jobs? They also have cell towers up and have spent a pile of cash, is that all wasted?

All in all, it’s a sad day all around. Canadians don’t get much needed competition in the cell phone space because of archaic foreign ownership rules. The CRTC needs to go. Sooner rather than later.

Apple Plans To “Vigorously” Defend Itself Against Nokia

Game on as they say.

Apple in their 10-K form (Warning: PDF) had this interesting tidbit on that Nokia patent lawsuit that I told you about:

The complaint alleges that these patents are essential to one or more of the GSM, UMTS and 802.11 wireless communications standards, and that the Company has the right to license these patents from plaintiff on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (“FRAND”) terms and conditions. Plaintiff seeks unspecified FRAND compensation and other relief. The Company’s response to the complaint is not yet due. The Company intends to defend the case vigorously.

Translation: The iLawyers have been unleashed. And I’m not sure I would want to be Nokia at the moment.

Of course there’s more inside this document that makes it worth reading as well. Such as how many iPods they sell and how much money that makes them, their expenses, etc. But I think that statement about Nokia should merit some attention. That’s due to how much Apple may stand to lose if they come out of the wrong end of this. One report suggests as much as a billion dollars might be in play here. Not exactly small change.

Google Releases Chrome OS Beta…. Ballmer’s Office Chairs Are In Trouble [UPDATE]

If you want an alternative to Windows 7 or Snow Leopard and you don’t mind a beta product, take a look at Google’s Chrome OS. The beta has just hit the Interwebs for your downloading pleasure. It includes Gnome, OpenOffice 3.0 and Flash Player 10. You need the following to run it:

Processor: Intel Pentium, Xeon or newer; AMD Duron, Athlon, Sempron, Opteron or newer
RAM: min. 256 MB
Hard disk: min. 1 GB
Graphics card: supports most modern graphics cards

Translation: It will pretty much run on anything made in the last five years or so.

I’ll be downloading it later today and trying it out. If you beat me to it, please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

 

UPDATE: The link has been disabled because this is a fake download.

Google Announces Google Maps Navigation For Smart Phones…. Garmin And TomTom Freak [UPDATED]

From the “this day was coming department” comes this announcement on the Google Blog:

Today we’re excited to announce the next step for Google Maps for mobile: Google Maps Navigation (Beta) for Android 2.0 devices.

This new feature comes with everything you’d expect to find in a GPS navigation system, like 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting. But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone’s Internet connection.

The first smart phone that will have this will be the Motorola Droid and it will only be available in the US for the time being. But it would be a safe bet to assume that this feature will be on any smart phone with a GPS capable of running Google Maps in the near future. If I’m Garmin or TomTom, I’d be a bit concerned as there’s no way they can beat the price of this service, which is free.

UPDATE: Garmin stock is being hammered harder than a porn starlet. As I type this, their stock is down by 15%.

Telus To Drop Hated System Access Fee…. Sort Of….

After setting a date for their “3G+” rollout as well as for the iPhone, Telus has announced “clear and simple pricing.” Basically, whatever the price that’s listed is what you will pay. That includes dropping the much hated system access fee along with the 38 to 53 cent 911 fee. Now of course there’s no such thing as a free lunch when it comes to Canadian telcos, and this is true in this case as Telus is raising the prices of their plans by $5 a month to keep screwing you over make up for “dropping” the system access fee. But you get voicemail on some Telus plans, so at the end of the day your bill might be $2 or $3 cheaper.

This is of course a direct response to Rogers dropping the system access fee not too long ago. Comparing the two, it seems to me that Telus comes out ahead because with Rogers, some customers ended up paying more while others paid less. Oh yeah, voice mail isn’t included in any of their plans either.

I really wish these telcos would get a clue. How about just dropping the system access fee altogether? No bundling it in or any nonsense like that. Just get rid of it and be done with it. I guess that these telcos are too greedy to do the right thing.

Telus To Launch “3G+” Network On November 5th Along With The iPhone…. Rogers Execs Crap Their Pants

The end of Rogers monopoly of the GSM standard and the iPhone in Canada has a date. It’s November 5th according to two press releases put out by Telus. First comes the one that talks about their “3G+” network:

The new next generation wireless network is the latest enhancement to TELUS’ multi-network mobile strategy, offering customers the technology for increased wireless data download speeds of up to 21 megabits per second, access to a world class selection of compelling mobile devices and international roaming service to more than 200 countries. This initiative also ensures a smoother transition to fourth generation (4G) wireless technology known as long term evolution (LTE).

For those of you wondering, 3G+ is HSPA/HSPA+. Now there’s that part about the iPhone. That was covered in a seperate press release. You already know what the iPhone does, the only thing that you likely care about is pricing:

Apple iPhone	3 year term	Regular price
8GB 3G	$99.99	$599.99
16GB 3GS Black or White	$199.99	$699.99
32GB 3GS Black or White	$299.99	$799.99

Okay. It’s the same as Rogers. No shock there. TELUS doesn’t seem to want to divulge specifics on its plan pricing, so Canadians who are fed up with Rogers can only hope that they don’t screw up a golden opportunity to steal market share by having plan prices that are at best in line with Rogers.

Still no word from Bell about their launch date, but I’m sure that’s coming shortly. That will give Rogers execs another reason to worry.