quote:

Internet providers fight over high-speed claims August 10, 2009 Michael Geist As two of Canada's biggest Internet service providers, Bell Canada and Rogers Communications are fierce rivals that frequently battle for the same customers. That marketplace fight rarely spills into the courtroom, yet last month a Rogers advertising campaign prompted Bell to file a $50 million dollar lawsuit. The result was an end to the campaign and evidence both companies over-promise the speed of their Internet services. The case began when Rogers launched a direct mail and Internet ad campaign called "Check Your Speed." The campaign warned users the Internet services "you are paying for may not be what you're getting" and encouraged them to test their connection with an independent third party. The campaign unsurprisingly offered Rogers services as an alternative. Bell filed suit, arguing in court documents that the campaign contained violations of the Trade-Mark Act, Competition Act. The company sought $50 million in general damages, $1 million in punitive damages, and an injunction blocking Rogers from continuing with its campaign. Two days later, Rogers dropped the third-party testing feature. Rather than using a fully independent third-party service, Rogers had used a server located in Seattle to run its tests. The court found that the distance between users in Ontario and the speed test server in Washington might help account for slower speeds. Even more telling was the evidence that placed the spotlight on a Canadian industry practice of advertising the maximum or "up to" speeds for customers, rather than minimum or actual speeds that customers typically obtain. The Rogers campaign was effectively premised on this discrepancy since it encouraged users to check their speeds where they would undoubtedly learn their typical speeds were lower than those promised by their ISP. The same holds true for Rogers, however. Under cross-examination, a Rogers witness was asked about the Rogers service: "if he [the customer] runs the test, and it tells him that his Internet connection speed is less than 10 megabits per second, is he still getting the Internet speed he's paying for?" The response? The Internet speed he's paying for is "up to," as is industry practice. This practice deserves far closer scrutiny from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. It is time for Canadian regulators to conduct their own tests on promised speeds and establish requirements that bring truth back to ISP advertising. Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law.

source:
http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/678628

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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow

www.windmobile.ca

wonder what the plans will be like.

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Deviant Art - Smuncky
My Photos on Flickr
If anyone wants to share their clubbing/nightlife pics go to Toronto Nightlife
"The best car-related innovation we have is not to improve the car, but eliminate the need to drive it everywhere we go.” -Alex Steffen

Globalive to launch Canadian wireless services as WIND



Globalive Wireless Management Corp., one of the big winners of last years Canadian AWS auction and overall trash talker towards Bell, Rogers and TELUS, has announced that it will offer its HSPA services in the Canadian marketplace as WIND. If the name sounds familiar, WIND is already a successful brand in Europe — particularly in Italy (where it was founded) and Greece — and its Canadian brand controllers are hoping to “not only leverage WIND’s challenger status, but also its operational intelligence and experience.” Canadians can expect to see WIND launch in key markets later this year with general availability (excluding Québec) in 2010. In the distant future, WIND will be making the transition from HSPA to LTE, although a time line for the move has not been made public.

Will one of our current providers be able to break WIND?

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Short time TA, Long time Guver, Good time giver.

i kinda like the Globalive Mobile name better

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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow

quote:

Canadian cellphone rates among world's worst Last Updated: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 | 9:50 PM ET The average Canadian cellphone user is paying among the highest bills in the developed world, according to a new international study. Using a comparison package of 780 calls made, 600 text messages and eight multimedia messages sent per year, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found that Canada has the third-highest wireless rates among developed countries. The United States had the highest rates for this "medium-usage" package, followed by Spain. Canadians falling into this usage category shelled out an average of $500 US a year for their cellphone service, compared with $635 for Americans and $508 for Spaniards. Dutch users had the cheapest rates, with an annual expenditure of only $131 for the sample plan. Canadians who were light or heavy users ranked slightly better in the OECD's annual Communications Outlook, released Tuesday. Light users, defined as those making 360 calls a year and sending 396 text messages and eight multimedia messages, spent $195 US a year on average — the 11th-most expensive among the 30 OECD member countries. Heavy users, those making 1,680 calls a year and sending 660 text messages and 12 multimedia messages, spent $563, which ranked near the middle of the pack at 12th. The poor showing was not surprising — the Canadian government has acknowledged that rates are too high and are contributing to lagging cellphone usage. Canada now ranks last for cellphone users per capita in the OECD, having been surpassed by Mexico since the organization's previous study. In late 2007, the then industry minister, Jim Prentice, moved to encourage competition by reserving airwaves for new cellphone carriers. A trio of new companies — Public Mobile, Globalive and DAVE Wireless — are expected to begin offering services by the end of this year or early in 2010. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, the cellphone industry's lobby group, did not return a request for comment. Skewed usage patterns Canadian wireless carriers have in the past questioned the OECD's methods and said it is difficult to compare cellphone plans across countries because of the variables involved. For one, Canadian and U.S. carriers also charge customers for incoming calls, a practice not common in many European and Asian countries, where only the calling party pays. Incoming minutes aren't tallied. This has skewed usage patterns in North America, with Canadians and Americans using significantly more airtime than customers in other parts of the world. Taylor Reynolds, communication analyst and economist for the Paris-based OECD, acknowledged such differences do make it difficult to get true comparisons. "North Americans do tend to make a lot more calls than in other countries," he said. "This is a challenge when we have to define a 'typical' consumption pattern for all OECD countries. The number of calls are too low for some countries and too high for others." The OECD's findings are in line with the CBC's iPhone iNdex, which was compiled last year when Rogers Communications released Apple's iPhone 3G. The iNdex compared the total cost of the device across 21 countries and found that Canada was the second-most expensive, next to Italy. The total cost of ownership of high-end devices such as the iPhone has also been considerably higher because Canada is the only OECD country to require three-year contracts. Most countries have two-year limits on contracts. Canadian carriers have recently begun offering such devices without contracts, albeit with hefty up-front fees. With files from Pras Rajagopalan

quote:

Broadband woes Canadians are also getting hosed for their internet access, according to the OECD Communications Outlook study. Canada has the second-most expensive high-speed connections, or those ranging between 12 and 32 megabits per second, next to only the Slovak Republic. Such a connection costs around $90 US per month in Canada, well above the OECD's average of $53. Medium-speed connections, or those between 2.5 and 10 megabits, are eighth-most expensive out of 30 countries at about $48, above the $43 average. Low-speed connections, under 2.5 megabits, are ninth-most expensive at around $33, slightly above the OECD average of $32.

source:
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/...nsive-oecd.html

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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow

With new providers emerging, Roaming charges within Canada are going to start on both Rogers / Fido.




Right now, with the introduction of Dryden Municipal Telephone System cell phone network, Roaming charges will apply in Dryden, Red Lake, Ft Frances, Atikokan, SX Narrows, and Upsala Ontario.

No domestic rates will apply in these towns...this includes airtime, long distance bundle, or data packages...or anything else...this is like being in another country

Charges will be as follows:

60Cents per minute + applicable Long Distance (30 cents / min)

MO-SMS - 60cents / msg

MT-SMS - 15cents / msg (please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is incoming texts)

Data - 5cents / kb...charged in 1kb increments


http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1560083

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2009/2009-484.htm

OUTRAGEOUS CRTC Descision

For some inexplicable reason, the CRTC has given interim approval to Bell's tariff application to apply UBB charges to GAS… »www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2009/2009-484.htm. The rationale appears to be that retail Internet and wholesale customers should be treated the same and that this would create regulatory symmetry with the cablecos' tariffs for TPIA service.

The decision seems to be flawed and highly premature… Among other things, there is an outstanding request from MTS Allstream for disclosure of information filed by Bell in confidence…

This is a call to action.
We need to all work together to fight this.
Please contact the CRTC and your local MP to make them aware of this anti-competitive maneuver.

original thread: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22...-CRTC-Descision

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Deviant Art - Smuncky
My Photos on Flickr
If anyone wants to share their clubbing/nightlife pics go to Toronto Nightlife
"The best car-related innovation we have is not to improve the car, but eliminate the need to drive it everywhere we go.” -Alex Steffen

Telecom is a joke in this country.

At least this will allow us to drop GAS service from our offerings.

thankfully I can get an HSA connection, which will be unaffected.

quote:

Originally posted by Abercrombie Will one of our current providers be able to break WIND?

or will it blow away with the wind? i think it will get eaten in the next year or 2 by the 3 bigger ones

quote:

Originally posted by monishb or will it blow away with the wind? i think it will get eaten in the next year or 2 by the 3 bigger ones

= CRTC Fail

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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow