iPhone's Canadian debut

I'd like to put something together about this over the weekend. I can say that the Rogers stores (exclusively) were 'understocked'. Reportedly, some as low as 100 per store. Of course when sold out (and they will sell out, there is no doubt), Rogers can then go on to say that they've sold out due to the high demand.

What, too cynical?

Then there were the events of the past few days, as I posted earlier this week.

Tonight though, is my night to shoot some pool and have a couple of pints with some friends. Read More...

Apple not pleased with Rogers

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is none too pleased with Rogers iphone pricing packages. So much so that Apple has decided to not stock the iPhone in their corporate stores.

Apple, disgusted with Rogers Wireless for dumping egregious service plans on would-be iPhone 3G buyers, has decided that its Canadian retail stores will have no part in helping the carrier market the new handset to customers...

Blogs and postings on the 'net have slammed Rogers for their pricing models.

With packages starting at CDN $60 for just 400mb of data, and a mandatory 3 year contract, Canadians are so far, not impressed.

Petitions and open letters to Rogers management teams are popping up online. See here and here.

Having met Ted Rogers and had the pleasure of eating at his residence in tony Forest Hill, I can say this; Mr Rogers is no dummy. His son (Edward) though, is another matter. They've set these prices because they figure customers will pay it. This time though, they may be wrong.

Yes, the publicity of late hasn't been glowing.

Stay tuned.

Update: iPhone Atlas is now reporting that not only did Apple not plan to sell the iPhone in their corporate locations in Canada, but, they have/had no plans to sell them at any of their store outside the U.S.

The Apple/Rogers story continues, apparently. Read More...

CDN cell carriers to charge for text messages

Yes, you read that right.

According to a story in the Windsor Star, Bell and Telus (and you can bet Rogers won't be far behind) will begin charging for incoming text messages starting next month.

Bell Mobility will begin charging customers 15 cents per incoming text message on Aug. 8. Telus Mobility is moving to the same billing practice effective Aug. 24. Until now, their pay-per-use customers who send text messages have been charged a 15-cent fee per message, but it hasn't cost anything to receive them.

Add this to the latest Rogers iphone pricing fiasco, and it's clear that telecommunications pricing in the Great White North continues to lag behind the ROTW.

with thanks to DR_JAYMAHDI over at dslreports for the heads up!
Read More...

Net Neutrality... Part 1

Net Neutrality, Fair Use and the 'free' Internet are common themes that I will speak to. Currently there is an interview here with Sandvine CEO Dave Caputo.

In it Mr. Caputo refers to the concerns of users as "laughable".

It ain't funny.

As you may or may not know, Sandvine is one of the company's (Arbor Ellacoya being another) that provide Rogers (along with Bell Canada) with deep packet inspection technology . This allows the 2 major Canadian ISP's to 'throttle' customer's internet connections/speeds. Recently, Bell began to 'manage' their network in such a way that now, 3rd party ISP resellers of Bell services are also being throttled. This practice has given rise to CRTC challenges.

Just this past week, the head of the CRTC (Konrad von Fickenstein) gave notice that the Net Neutrality issue, may become part of a "major consultation", calling it "inevitable".

There's all sorts of other issues underneath [net neutrality], such as ... blocking of services or Web sites, preferential treatment for certain content providers, the issue of modification of content and in terms of carriage-related issues, the limitations of what devices can be connected to the network...

Sadly, what was once a country seen as being a leader in terms of both access/availability, and speed is no more. Our wireless packages are seriously under-competitive (against ROTW) , with Rogers now injecting code into web pages as a means of notifying it's customers that they were approaching their allowable bandwidth for that given billing cycle, Bell resellers (like Teksavvy), and their customers, getting hit by Bell's 'traffic management strategy', and Rogers themselves having throttled their own customers for over 2 years now, what has become known as Net Neutrality finally looks to be the 'net issue in the near future.

When I say finally I say this because it has now become a mainstream media issue. 'Google' net neutrality, and do it from this page (which should become your new search page). Net Neutrality is not a new topic. This has been discussed widely on-line for close to 3 years now.

And I'll come to it again, sooner rather than later I'm sure.

Until then, do yourself a favour and visit Michael Geist's blog/site. He is a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law. He has obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees from Cambridge University in the UK and Columbia Law School in New York, and a Doctorate in Law (J.S.D.) from Columbia Law School.

He's also an author/speaker of some renown.

And he's got a perma-link on my page under links...

The Candia'net...

I wonder what a routine by George Carlin on the subject of free internet would've sounded like. I'm sure it would've included all seven (if not more) words from his infamous bit entitled "Seven Words You Can Never Use on Television".

WARNING! Vulgar humour alert!



RIP buddy...

thanks to ars technica for the heads up on the Sandvine interview! Read More...