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Category Archives: telecommunications

What’s with Canada’s slow wireless speeds?

25 Apr

TURTLESAkamai is back with another State of the Internet report (free registration required) and perhaps the most notable result from it, at least as it pertains to Canada, is another dreadful showing in mobile network speeds.

The data for the one Canadian wireless provider tracked shows it to be way behind much of the world, posting an average connection speed in the fourth quarter of 2012 of just over one megabit per second, with a peak of 2.7 Mbps. Those speeds are almost dead last among the 82 providers in 54 countries tracked. (One Austrian provider is tops in average speed at 8 Mbps while a Spanish carrier wins out in peak speeds with 44 Mbps, by way of comparison.)

With all three of Canada’s big providers having rolled out super-fast LTE, those figures must surely be wrong, right? Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on April 25, 2013 in telecommunications

 

Wireless watchdogs much sharper in the U.S.

16 Apr
Grrr! Canada's competition watchdog when it comes to wireless.

Grrr! Canada’s competition watchdog when it comes to wireless.

Last week was an ironic one in the North American wireless market. Here in Canada, the bell started to toll a little more loudly for small wireless carriers with the Globe and Mail breaking the news that one of them – Mobilicity – is in buyout talks with Telus. South of the border, the ironic flipside of that was taking place as the Justice Department recommended special dispensations for smaller wireless companies in order to boost competition.

As the Globe reports, number two Canadian carrier Telus is officially talking to Mobilicity about acquiring the smaller company in a deal that some sources value at up to $400 million. If the sale does go through, the federal government would be up a certain smelly creek, since Mobilicity and fellow small carriers Wind and Public Mobile are effectively its own creations. With Ottawa having set aside spectrum for these companies back in 2008, it’s somewhat responsible for ensuring these companies get on their feet.

Instead, Industry Minister Christian Paradis decided to dish out some tough love in the upcoming 700 megahertz spectrum, which will take place in November. Rather than again giving new carriers set-asides in what is ultimately going to be very good and valuable spectrum, the government is instead going with caps that will prevent any one player from hoarding licenses. This, Paradis says, will “ensure” that at least four carriers can acquire spectrum in every market. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on April 16, 2013 in telecommunications

 

Debunking yet another set of wireless myths

11 Apr

telus-goatsA little while ago, I promised I’d respond in greater depth to some comments made by Craig McTaggart, Telus’s head of broadband policy, in his 42-page paper that delightfully borrows Cher’s “Turn Back Time” title. That document was itself a rebuttal to some of the observations previously made by me, University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist and consumer advocates Open Media. My own musings were in response to a report from Scotia Capital that sought to dispel some myths about Canada’s wireless market. It’s a long chain of rebuttals, but here we are.

It’s taken a while to get through all 42 pages, so I won’t punish anyone with a similarly long response. I only hope that if McTaggart does choose to continue the debate that he keeps it short and punchy too. I’ve distilled my responses to his points down to 10, at least as far as they’re relevant to anything I’ve written.

1. High ARPU does not equal high prices. Both Geist and I initially responded to McTaggart’s claims that Canadian carriers’ world-topping average revenue per user does not necessarily mean that subscribers here pay high prices. I think we both did a good job at countering that; claims to the contrary suggest that ARPU is high because Canadians use their phones more than people in other countries, but that’s not true. Brits use more data while Americans use more minutes, yet ARPU is significantly lower in both countries. And if for some reason ARPU really doesn’t equal high prices, it definitely does equal high bills, which is really the only measure that matters to consumers at the end of the day. There’s no two ways about it: Canadians have the highest wireless bills in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on April 11, 2013 in telecommunications, telus

 

Lessons from Denmark’s telecom market

26 Mar
Even Danish vikings understood the benefits of cheap, accessible technology.

Even Danish vikings understood the benefits of cheap, accessible technology.

I spent a few days in Denmark last week doing research for my next book, Humans 3.0. One of the chapters will look at whether technological advance is making us happier as a whole, and with Denmark regularly ranking as the happiest country on the planet, I thought there might be some insights to be found. There definitely were and I’ll revisit this topic in future posts.

One of the contributing factors to Danes’ high satisfaction levels is surely the excellent state of their telecommunications services. Denmark has some of the fastest and cheapest wireline and wireless offerings in the world.

On the home broadband side, the country rates third overall in terms of overall value, according to Ookla’s Net Index. I almost wept tears of envy when doing speed tests at my friend’s house, where I was staying. I got even sadder when I learned that his ultra-fast, symmetrical download and uploads speeds (with unlimited usage) costs only about $15 a month. Similar service either doesn’t exist in Canada, or you have to break the bank to get it.

On the wireless side, with the debate currently stirred up again over whether Canada’s market is competitive, I thought it might be instructive to see how the Danes manage. In that vein, I ventured into a Telia store, pretending to be interested in buying an iPhone 5. Despite having only 6 million people, Denmark has four facilities-based wireless competitors: Telia, Telenor, 3 and TDC. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2013 in denmark, iphone, mobile, telecommunications

 

Debunking the wireless myth busters, redux

18 Mar

Last week, I made an effort to investigate some of the findings of a recent Scotia Capital report, which itself sought to dispel some of the alleged myths pervading the Canadian wireless market. Some of my conclusions were based on slightly older numbers, taken from a 2011 version of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Wireless Matrix. Since stats such as revenue and profits don’t change that quickly over the course of a year, I felt it was okay to use those numbers.

I’ve since acquired more recent data, as of the third quarter of 2012, which paint a much more accurate and up-to-date picture. BofA’s Global Wireless Matrix is something of a bible for the wireless industry, packed with thorough statistics on virtually every carrier in 50 developed and developing countries. The regular report is the most accurate measure and comparison of wireless carriers around the world, which is probably why the Canadian industry and its allies don’t want the public to see it. The report details just how well they’re doing and does much to prove that Canadians are indeed paying high prices.

The whole document is too bulky to post, but here’s a PDF of the key comparison chart. I’ve also pared the data down into some easier-to-digest charts to compare specific key metrics. Let’s start with penetration: Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on March 18, 2013 in mobile, telecommunications

 
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