Rogers

How Are Canada’s New Wireless Players Doing?

By Mark Evans in Wireless No Comments Tags: , , , , ,

Looking at Rogers Communications’ third-quarter results, the “new competitive reality” (aka new low-cost wireless rivals such as Wind, Public Mobile and Mobilicity) is starting to have an impact on Rogers’ profits.

Faced with the reality that consumers now have more choices, Rogers has been forced to lower its prices, cough up better deals to existing customers who threaten to leave, and launch a low-cost wireless service of its own, Chattr. This may be bad news for Rogers but it’s good news for consumers who are paying some of the highest wireless prices in the world.

Amid the doom and gloom about Rogers, there’s one key metric missing: Other than the fact Rogers is being forced to play nice, how many consumers are actually signing up with Wind, Public Mobile and Mobilicity? Is the competition winning lots of business or simply forcing the incumbents to offer sweeter deals?

There has been little subscriber information from the new players other than a press release by Wind in August that it had “welcomed over 100,000 customers in our first two quarters”. You need to figure out what “welcomed” means before getting too excited. Does this mean subscribers? Does it mean people who asked for information about what Wind is offering?

As much as it may be easy to dismiss Wind, et al, one lesson I learned an important lesson a few years ago that a a lot of business can happen without a lot of horn-blowing. I went to a Virgin Mobile event a few years ago, and told their PR person that I was going to guess how many customers they had. I wrote “25,000″ on my hand, and then showed it to her. Much to my surprise, Virgin had 250,000. When Virgin sold its stake to Bell, there were more than one million subscribers.

For all we know, the new players could have lots of customers or very few customers. As privately-owned companies, they don’t have to disclose any information unless it’s to their advantage. At some point, they may have to tip their cards to demonstrate to analysts and consumers they have enough traction to become viable and long-term players. But I think until they get a healthy amount of subscribers, don’t expect to hear any updates.

Canada: Get Ready for Broadband Bandwidth Tiers

By Mark Evans in Web-based Services 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

Last week, Rogers ruffled a few feathers when it unveiled bandwidth changes to its broadband services. New customers who sign up for the Lite service will get 15 gigabytes of data rather than 25GB; while Extreme users will now get 80GB rather than 90GB.

The negative reaction from “enthusiastic” Web users was not surprising given they’re the ones using a lot of bandwidth to download or stream music, movies and games, as well as surf the Web and use social media services. For most of the population, the bandwidth changes will likely have little or no impact.

There are two angles to Rogers’ bandwidth tinkering. By reducing the amount of bandwidth, Rogers has an opportunity make more money by selling additional bandwidth to customers. Along with higher-speeds, this is how Rogers grabs more of our dollars.

More important is the fact that tiered broadband pricing is going to become a hard and fast reality. While bandwidth caps have been in place, they haven’t captured much attention because they’ve been fairly generous and few consumers bump up against the limits. But in reducing bandwidth caps, it seems likely Rogers could be moving to a pricing structure in which bandwidth plays a more important role.

For consumers, it means the speed of their Internet connection will no longer be the only consideration. When selecting and paying for broadband service, consumers will have to cough up for speed and bandwidth. These tiered plans have been embraced by cablecos and telcos around the world such as BT. In North America, however, speed has been the name of the broadband game but with penetration rates getting pretty high, broadband players need new ways to generate more revenue.

In other words, we’re probably moving from an all-you-can-eat market to a pay-to-play market. Given there’s little competition in the broadband market and that consumers are using more online services, the size of your Internet bill is poised to increase.

Still Not Lovin’ the iPad

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod 8 Comments Tags: , , ,

When it comes to the iPad, I’ve flipped more times than a hamburger on a BBQ grill. But after spending some time over the past few days playing with an iPad, I’m firmly in the not-getting-one camp.

The iPad is cool, it’s sleek, beautifully designed, and has some great features, particularly the ability to multi-task and check e-mail and surf the Web. The problem with the iPad, however, is it’s not enough. You really can’t work on it, you can’t make phone calls, take photos or videos, or plug in a USB. In other words, it feels like a mini-Mac.

As a result, it is difficult to justify splashing out $750 to buy one because there doesn’t seem to be a fit with my computing landscape, which includes a MacBook Pro and an iPhone 3. If I commuted or travelled, an iPad could make sense. But working from home means I don’t commute – unless riding my bicycle to a clients counts.

Yes, I understand that the iPad is leading-edge, and that as someone who counsels clients on what’s over the horizon, I can justify buying an iPad as “research” but that seems excessive.

So rather than buy an iPad, I’m more interested in an iPhone 4 when the antenna problems are fixed and my contract with Rogers lets me upgrade without suffering a major financial hit.

Why the iPhone 4?

Well, the iPhone offers me tremendous utility as a mobile device that complements my MacBook Pro (I’m a huge fan of tethering). The iPhone 4′s features, smaller size and design are personally far more appealing and relevant than an iPad. But that’s just me as opposed to all the new iPad aficionados.

The Battle Between Connectivity and Content

By Mark Evans in Media, Web 2.0 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

For all the talk about Rupert Murdoch attempting to re-establishing the paywall for content, and online start-ups struggling to make free services viable through advertising or freemium plans, one thing that doesn’t get a lot of attention is how Internet service providers are happily raking in the dough.

The more people use the Web, the more services they consume, including growing amounts of video, the more they want a better, faster online connection, even if it means paying more for it. The high-speed service providers have been more than happy to meet this demand by offering new tiers of premium services. Rogers, for example, has five broadband services, capped off – for now – by an Ultimate package that delivers 50Mbps for $99.99/month.

In other words, high-speed access is a good, high-margin market even taking into account that cablecos and carriers have had to make major investments in their infrastructure to offer better, faster service.

At the other end of the spectrum are the players that supply the content that makes high-speed access so valuable and necessary. This group include newspapers, magazines, video sites, software-as-a-service for businesses and consumers and games. Without high-speed access, it would be difficult to deliver a good experience.

As a group, the content players are struggling. Newspapers, for example, are trying to figure out how to generate enough advertising revenue to support shrinking infrastructures. Google is still working away on making the ever-increasing YouTube profitable, while online start-ups are hoping that subscriptions may emerge as an alternative to advertising as a revenue source.

In other words, one group – the high-speed players – is thriving, while the other is scrambling to make money. At some point, something has to give become the current situation doesn’t appear to be viable in the long-run. You can’t have a healthy ecosystem when one group is fat and happy, and the other is sick.

At a Canadian Telecom Summit panel that I moderated yesterday, this was an interesting topic of discussion that could have been even more interesting if someone from a content company has been there.

While the broadband players are working with content suppliers to expand their distribution and, in the process, hopefully make more revenue, the theme that struck me is how high-speed companies such as Rogers are starting to drive even more revenue by expanding their service footprint.

Rogers, for example, recently launched video-on-demand online, and offers access to content through it wireless network. The strategic thrust for Rogers is “convenience” so consumers can access content any time, anywhere on any device. Of course, you have to pay for convenience but, again, consumers seem to be willing to pay for access to get content.

Content may be king but on the Web, connectivity is where you’ll find the money.

Long Live Mobile Tethering!

By Mark Evans in Wireless No Comments Tags: , , ,

As a “mobile warrior”, I have a suite of tools that let me work anywhere at any time. One of these tool is wireless tethering that lets me access the Internet by connecting by iPhone with my MacBook. If you have a data plan with Rogers, tethering was a free service.

There was, however, speculation that Rogers was going to start charging for tethering – something that would have been a terrible but not surprising given how wireless carriers like to charge for premium services.

Today, Rogers said today that tethering will now only be available for Rogers and Fido customers who have data plans of 1GB/month or more.

By continuing to provide tethering for people who have large data plans, Rogers is giving its customers the ability to have mobile Internet access without buying a Rocket Stick, which only makes sense if you need mobile access on a regular basis.

If Rogers is looking another good mobile wireless idea, how about letting people stop and start their Rocket Stick service. I’m sure it would be a great way to get three to six months of business from people who need Internet access at the cottage or at the ski chalet, but don’t need it other times of the year.

For more thoughts on Rogers’ new tethering policy, check The Telecom Blog.

Review: The Rocket Stick Rocks

By Mark Evans in Wireless 15 Comments Tags: , , ,

The upside of running your own one-man/woman business is, in theory, there is lots of flexibility to work when and where you want. The downside is when you’re not working, there’s no one back at the home office to take care of business.

As a result, I wanted to stay connected while taking two weeks of vacation at a cottage outside Haliburton, Ont. Yeah, I know a vacation shouldn’t mean being connected but it was a necessary evil.

If you listen to the radio, it’s pretty much impossible to not know about Rogers’ Rocket Mobile Internet service that features a USB modem that uses Rogers 3.5G wireless network. So, I reached out to Rogers to see if I could take the Rocket up north for a rural test run.

All in all, the service is excellent. For the most part, the service is similar in terms of speed to Rogers’ residential high-speed service, although there were some interruptions when watching videos.

Getting the service set up was straightforward – the process, which includes an auto-install of the software, took 10 minutes. Getting on the Internet is easy, and the service supported not only Web browsing but Twitter, e-mail and blog publishing.

If you agree to a three-year contract, Rogers gives you the modem for free. Without a contract, the modem costs $199.

Data plans range from $30/month (500MB) to $85 for 5GB, which makes it pretty good value for anyone looking for mobile high-speed access. (Note: If you use a lot of data, including streaming video, 5GB can disappear in a hurry. It would be great to see an all-you-can package.)

In an ideal world, it would be great to see Rogers provide an integrated package that would include mobile and residential high-speed service – giving computer users home and away coverage.

More: This is the second in a series of product/service reviews I’ll be doing over the next couple of weeks. The first review on TweetCapz (an iPhone photo caption application) ran last week.

Thanks to everyone for offering me the opportunity to try out a bunch of products and services.


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