The big question in the Canadian VOIP market these days is when Rogers will launch its cable telephony service. CEO Ted Rogers has talked about July 1, which is the 20th anniversary of Rogers Wireless, but Rogers' PR folks are sticking a “mid-summer” timeframe. UBS Securities met with Rogers COO Nadir Mohamed yesterday, who heads up the company's cable and wireless divisions. UBS believes Rogers will roll out telephony in a few weeks, and push digital cable and phone service as a way to maximize each truck roll. UBS also expects Rogers will price its telephone service at an “attractive discount” between (Shaw $55 a month and Videotron ($15.95 to $30 a month). I've got Rogers high-speed and cable so it will be interesting to see what kind of deal Ted's going to offer me. Something in the $30 a month range with Web-based features (voice-mail to e-mail, easy ways to configure services such as call-answer and call-forwarding) and a healthy amount of LD would probably lure me away from Sprint.
Blog Search – A New Tool
In response to my blog on the frustrations of blog search, Randy Charles Morin let me know about a new search tool he recently created called kbSearch. It's a meta search engine that “queries many other search engines by using their RSS interface and presents the results from these search engines in one common interface”. It is a solid first step by offering an easy way to check a variety of sources without having to waste time navigating through the Web. You can also add new feeds to a number of RSS readers – NewsGator, Yahoo, Pluck, My MSN, etc. – with one mouse click. The next suggested step in kbSearch's evolution would be upgrading the interface, which is pretty basic. Nevertheless, kbSearch is definitely worth checking out. With another upgrade or two, Randy, my blog search conundrum may be solved. Then, I'd want a search engine that can weed out all the blog crap out there, and present most interesting and relevant results.
Nortel AGM Nears
In about 24 hours, Nortel Networks CEO Bill Owens is apparently going to provide the rest of us with his strategic vision. This will make the trek to the Toronto Congress Centre in suburban Toronto worth the $70 return taxi fare ( I hope!). Nortel spokesman Anne Fuller told Reuters that “He's going to talk about some progress on the strategic plan, but also talk about priorities and strategy moving forward.” Given Owens has been on the job for 14 months, it will interesting to see what Owens has to say about Nortel's technology portfolio, which is getting a bit old in the tooth despite US$2-billion of R&D a year. For all the talk about India, China, security and the U.S. government, the fundamental challenge facing Nortel is its technology portfolio. With all the distractions of the accounting scandal and the inability to match M&A moves by rivals such as Alcatel, Cisco and Juniper, Nortel has fallen behind in some key growth areas. Sure, it's a major player in wireless but Nortel is not a robust competitor in the access, router and optical markets. This is what I'd like Owens to talk about tomorrow.
The P2P Backlash on MP3 Sales?
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled P2P services such as Grokster are liable for the actions of their users, a big will be the impact will be on MP3 players. Whether anyone wants to admit it, MP3 players such as iPods have become popular because people can load them up with free hundreds, if not thousands, of free songs downloaded using P2P services. Anyone who thinks all that music has been dutifully ripped off CDs or bought legally is delusional. If the “pipeline” to free music disappears or shrinks will this make MP3 players less compelling? If this happens, will the iPod suddenly become yesterday's story? I'm willing to bet Apple will attempt to downplay this scenario as far-fetched while talking up the success of iTunes. Maybe the legal downloading music business will receive a much-needed boost from the court decision. I suspect it may cause some people to think twice about using a P2P service. Then again, the concept of music for free is still very much alive and well – especially within the key 15 to 24 year-old demographic – if you look at the number of users and songs available on Kazaa, Limewire, BitTorrent, et al. You may be able to wound the P2P beast but killing it is going to be extremely difficult – even with highest court in the U.S. weighing in.
Addendum: Michael Geist, who has become a go-to P2P legal expert, believes the court ruling has no impact on P2P users because there are already laws that address downloading. Instead, he said the decision makes it clear P2P service providers are now legally vulnerable. For people still intent on downloading, the challenge may be finding a service if Grokster, Limewire, etc. decide it's not worth the legal hassle. Then again, I'm sure someone could easily set up a P2P service in a country not adhering to WIPO, and snub their nose at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ethnic Marketing of Telecom Services
In-Stat has a report suggesting carriers are taking a more aggressive marketing approach to ethnic groups. The company cites Qwest's low-cost LD calling plans for Mexico, and Sprint's launch of Movida Communications, which also targets the large Hispanic community. The report is intriguing as carriers try to penetrate new niches while protecting their existing customer base from cablecos. I'm a firm believer VOIP is the ideal service to be sold into ethnic and special interest groups. This can be done by large service providers such as Vonage or Cablevision, as well as small niche players looking to establish a viable and profitable market foothold. The big challenge facing large companies is ethnic marketing requires particular focus and may not be worth it if the audience isn't big enough. This, in theory, leaves room for small and nimble rivals to jump into unserved or under-served markets.
D-Link Woes
I don't usually use this forum to complain about technology but I have little choice after two weeks of frustration trying to get a D-Link range expander to work with my wireless network. They sell the product as essentially plug n' play. You take it out of the box, go to a Web site to configure it, and it is supposed to work. Well, it didn't work despite many calls to customer service. I even purchased a new wireless router after a second D-Link customer rep happened to mention my existing D-Link router was not compatible. (Strange, it didn't say anything about that on the range expander box). Finally, another customer rep suggested the expander was defective, and I should return it, which will likely take several weeks. Arghhh! There, that feels much better.
