It feels like the calm before the storm. The AGM doesn't start for another hour but shareholders are already starting to trickle in – I guess to secure the best view of Nortel CEO Bill Owens' keynote. The company is expecting as many as 1,500 people to attend but the PR folks suspect some people may decide not to come after reading newspaper reports the AGM will could last a long time. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that Nortel may have an issued a press release last week warning about the length to deter the curious and the tourists from checking things out. As for the meeting, Nortel is alloting three minutes for each of the 11 shareholder proposals on the agenda. Shareholder questions will be limited to three minutes, although there apparently will not be a cap on the number of questions.
Rogers' Telephony Plans to be Unveiled Today
After much speculation, Rogers Communications is holding a press conference this afternoon to talk about its telephony plans. While the company may not roll out service on July 1, it is meeting the “deadline” set by CEO Ted Rogers who want the move into local telephony to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Rogers Wireless. I'm not sure if the noise coming from Vonage's Canadian headquarters is champagne being popped now that Rogers will help educate the market about VOIP, or if it's screams of panic now that a major cableco into getting into the game in Ontario. My take is Rogers will aggressively go after existing customers who already have two service (high-speed, cable or wireless) and look for the low-hanging fruit before it pursues the mass market. Of course, if disgruntled Bell customers want to sign up for the service, which may be sold for about $40 a month, that's fine too.
Nortel's Big Day
If you're watching TV this morning, I'm appearing on CBC NewsWorld at 8:45 a.m. to talk about what's likely to happen at the AGM today. The CBC is going to have a big broadcasting truck at the Toronto Congress Centre, which should give you a sense of how newsworthy the AGM will be. For technology/telecom reporters, this is our Super Bowl. I'm hoping it will be a lively affair given this is the first time in two years investors/shareholders will have a chance to question management. It would be a major disappointment if shareholders allow Nortel quickly to through the procedural motions. I've got a feeling, however, the meeting may be like the AGM in Halifax in 2002, which lasted nearly five hours as shareholder activist Robert Verdun followed Robert's Rules to interogate CEO Frank Dunn. Nortel expects the meeting to be lengthy but doesn't plan to have any breaks, although it will serve coffee and muffins. Perhaps the company believes the lack of a break will “encourage” shareholders to quicken the pace.
U.S. CableCos Rules the Roost
I'm little late to the party but the U.S. court Brand X decision allowing cablecos to not share their networks could be a major blow to independent VOIP service providers such as Vonage and Lingo. It is not inconceivable to think cablecos offering their own flavor of VOIP will block the traffic of rivals. Frankly, this scenario – if it materializes – stinks because totally goes against the grain of the power of Web. Instead of offering a highway to deliver services and information to the masses, the Web could devolve into a series of private networks with “walled garden” applications/services. Sure, the carriers and cablecos have made huge investments to develop high-speed networks but they have the advantage of customer relationships and a steady revenue stream from subscribers paying for high-speed service. If the U.S. cablecos go down this path, perhaps the carriers can counter-attack by providing Vonage, et al with more love in deals that benefit both sides (co-marketing, revenue sharing, joint ventures, white-label branding, etc.). In Canada, the CRTC has extracted a promise from Bell and Telus to not block third-party traffic.
BT Jumps on Microsoft IP-TV Bandwagon
The folks in Redmond must be happy and relieved after BT decided to enter into a commercial agreement to use Microsoft's IP-TV Edition software. The deal comes on the heels of Telstra deciding not to proceed with an IP-TV trial using Microsoft's software, while Swisscom and SBC have delayed the launch of their commercial services. BT said it will conduct IP-TV trials early next year before launching a full-blown commercial offer in the summer. It is hard not to get the idea the buzz surrounding IP-TV is running ahead of the technology. While Microsoft is working on a key part of the IP-TV equation, it is just one piece of the puzzle that also includes software, hardware, network upgrades, programming and back-office billing and provisioning systems. Until all the pieces come together and carriers can provide a fully-baked service to 100s of thousands of customers, IP-TV will not be ready for prime-time. The problem is the longer carriers wait to get into the TV business, the bigger advantage the cablecos enjoy.
Addendum: It was rightly pointed out to me that many carriers are already offering “Telco TV”, including Manitoba Telecom Services, Aliant and Sasktel. None of these carriers use Microsoft software.
Nortel's PEC Paying Off Already!
Hey, spending nearly half a billion dollars on mid-tier systems integrator wasn't such a bad idea after all. Nortel PEC Solutions (formerly PEC Solutions Inc. before it was bought by Nortel for US$448-million) has signed to a deal with NASA's Mission Command and Telemetry Network to upgrade its networks so critical data can be shared between the Space Shuttle Discovery, the International Space Station, and NASA operations centers. Almost as important, Nortel PEC will install a “mobility solution” – how come they just don't say wireless network? – at the Kennedy Space Center so journalists attending launches can secure access the Web while moving throughout the six-acre site. Now if Nortel would only provide wireless Web access during tomorrow's AGM, that would be a very good thing.
