Mitel Mobile - Shape of Things to Come?

This posting seems fitting in the wake of Canada'a post-Olympic glow. Ottawa-based Mitel recently added an interesting twist to their expanding portfolio of advanced communications offerings.

Just when you thought the UC umbrella was wide enough, they launched Mitel Mobile in late January. I've written about this before, and when vendors start competing with carriers, you know the status quo is a thing of the past.

I'm just adding another perspective in the form of my latest Service Provider Views column on TMCnet. It's based on an interview with Laith Zalzalah of Mitel NetSolutions, and you can read about it here. I'm sure I won't be alone in tracking their progress, and it will be interesting to see if this is a one-off variation, or a new model for other vendors to emulate.

Meet the Canadians at IT Expo in Miami

Over the next few days, I'll be posting about the upcoming TMC ITExpo in Miami, running from January 20-22. It's coming up quickly now, and my hands have been very full with the Smart Grid Summit, which is co-located there. More about that on another post.

Right now I want to update you on the networking breakfast that's happening Friday morning. For those of you attending the ITExpo, I'm hosting this get-together sponsored by the governments of Ontario and Canada. I've been part of these breakfasts before, and it's a great way to network with up and coming Canadian tech startups in a relaxed environment.

I've posted about this before, and as of today, about half the available spots are taken for guests. If you'd like to attend, or review the agenda, drop me a line, and I'll send you the invite, which includes how to RSVP.

Aastra - Another Canadian Bright Light

Following my post the other day about MTS Allstream, I wanted to highlight another Canadian company that's on a roll these days. That company is Aastra, and I've blogged about them in the past. This is a company that has slowly built up a strong position in the IP telephony market, via both organic growth and a series of acquisitions, particularly in Europe. Aastra is one of a handful of Canadian telecom players that is publicly-traded and truly has a global reach. I know, this sounds a lot like another Canadian company that used to be a stock market darling, and if the truth be known, among Canadian telecom equipment vendors, I think Aastra is now poised to be what Nortel used to be.

Furthermore, their stock has held up well relative to other tech stocks, with a strong bounceback that has shares trading higher now than before the markets crashed last year. Much of this rides on their Q1 results which came out about 2 weeks ago. Sales took a big hit - down 16% - compared to Q4 2008, but more importantly, they're 56% higher than Q1 a year ago. Add to that rising gross margins, a sustained commitment to R&D, very little debt, and manageable operational expenses, and you have the making of a good growth story.

On the product front, they continue to innovate, and I think that has a lot to do with their success. It's hard to compete directly with the Polycoms, Avayas and Ciscos of the world, but they keep finding ways to add value to their lineup of SIP-based phones. One example is AastraLink RP, which integrates with Microsoft's Response Point, and won a 2008 TMC Product of the Year Award. Another would be ViPr, their touch screen videoconferencing solution which works with most any existing PBX. These are recent examples of how they're attacking specific niches and applications, and have many others in the mix, including Unified Communications, mobility and contact centers.

All told, there's a lot to like about Aastra, and in true Canadian style, they're doing it quietly but effectively. They should be familiar to many of my readers, but maybe not familiar enough, and with the flag-waving I'm doing this week, hopefully that will change now for the better.

Mobivox Makes Red Herring Final Cut for North America 100

Some great news for Mobivox, a Canadian company I've been following for ages, and recently did some client work for.

Their CEO, Peter Diedrich, posted on their blog late last week about Mobivox making the cut for the Red Herring 100 North America.

This is one of their industry awards events, and starts with a field of 1,200 entries. As Peter's post explains, this was reduced to the top 200, all of whom will present at their event next week, and from this will emerge the final list of the top 100.

I'm happy to share the news that Mobivox made the cut, not just because I know what they're up to, but also because they're Canadian. Too bad they didn't make the Branham 300, which spotlights Canadian up-and-comers, but somehow I think that's about to change.

I won't be attending the Red Herring event, but I wish Mobivox the best of luck. The final 200 list doesn't seem to have been published yet, so I don't know who they're up against, but to learn more about the event as well as a list of last year's winner, check out their site here.

CATA Innovation Awards - Vote Now For Canada's Best!

CATA - the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance - is one of Canada's better-known industry groups advocating our tech sector, and they're putting their 2009 Innovation and Leadership Awards together now.

There are 9 categories, and you're all welcome to vote for best-in-class for each. Two categories are of particular interest to me - Emerging Technology and Mobile Communications. The latter is called the Ericsson MoCo Award, and I have some familiarity with all 3 companies nominated. I'm not going to tell you who I voted for, but they're all worthy choices - how's that for a balanced, analyst-like response?

Anyhow, you can review the categories and nominees here, as well as cast your vote. It's a great way to support Canada's tech sector, and the winners will be announced about a month from now, so check back with me then if you're dying to find out how your choices did.

Project GhostNet - Canada (and Google) Saves the World From Cyber-Spying - Again!

Wow, what a story. While most people I know are at either VoiceCon or CTIA this week, this one is worth staying home for. Also, I'm sure all the Skype followers are focused today on the news about working with the iPhone - and that IS a big story. However - for very different reasons - I'm sure you'll find this one of interest too.

This was a front page story in today's Globe and Mail, and no doubt many other Canadian dailies. I don't particularly follow cyber-crime, but this story is pretty incredible, and for the VoIP crowd there's an important Skype tangent. This will make a great thriller movie some day (maybe I should write it!) with all kinds of angles that normally don't have much to do with one another - China/Tibet, cyber-spying Toronto, Canada, Google and Skype. Are you intrigued? Read on, please.

In short, a team of academics/tech researchers based at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, discovered a Dr. Evil-like cyber-spying network with global implications. The threat is largely around how data that is sensitive to Tibet's security is being poached and monitored from PC's all over the world, and how many of the links point to servers located in China. I'll stop there - am sure you can imagine for yourself just how charged these issues and allegations are. Phew!

I'll leave the politics aside, but as the reports describe, it's a story that took a life of its own with one small discovery leading to many others, and finally to the news that went public today. I'm no hacker, but can appreciate how complex these things are, and how you have to think like a hacker to reveal the Rosetta Stone that gets you on the trail to the source.

Incredibly, the breakthrough that cracked the code was not an ingenious repeat of what went into Colossus (the famous Bletchley Park-developed computer that solved the code of Nazi messages - arguably saving Britain from defeat in WWII) - but a simple Google search!!! Amazing, Mr. Smart, as Harry Hoo would have said to Agent 86 in his slow, incredulous manner.

If that doesn't get you going, I don't know what else will. There's a lot to this story, and I'll steer you straight to the article from today's paper. I love citing the online edition of stories because you also get the reader comments. At last count there was well of over 500 comments, so if cyber-spying is your thing, you could be reading for a while.

This story should be of huge interest to anyone working in PC/Internet security, as it highlights just how vulnerable we can be. As smart as we think we are, the bad guys are often smarter, but in the end - and here's the scary part - nobody is smarter than Google! What does it say about cyberspace when an operation this sophisticated can ultimately be exposed by searching on Google? Sure makes you wonder what else about our personal/private lives is just a few clicks away from those don't have the best of intentions.

So many implications to consider here, but I want to just touch on a couple here - and perhaps this will lead to some interesting dialog about other things...

First, waving the flag, it's great to say that this discovery/expose came from Canada, primarily Toronto, and some from Ottawa. The article provides quite a bit of detail about them, but the key players are Nart Villeneuve, Greg Walton and Ron Deibert from the lab at U of T, and the Ottawa-based SecDev Group.

Second - here's where the Skype connection comes in. This isn't the first time China has been associated with compromised data security. Last fall, just after the Beijing Olympics, there was an unsettling discovery about how Skype traffic was being monitored in China. Ugh. I posted about it, and the story was widely covered in the media and blogosphere.

So why am I dragging Skype back into this messy place again? Well - the same team at U of T that just exposed this cyber-spy operation also discovered what was happening to Skype in China. I know what you're thinking --- if they're smart enough to do GhostNet, when you've got a cyber-spy problem, who ya gonna call?

He's Heeeere...Obama Comes to Ottawa

Just a quick public service announcement to let you know Canada rocks - at least until mid-afternoon.

Canada is the first foreign visit for President Obama, and he touched down as scheduled at 10:30 this morning - just a few minutes ago. If you don't RSS my blog, he may be gone by the time you read this, but that's ok!

He's just here for a few hours, and everyone I've talked to in Ottawa is ga-ga about the visit. There probably hasn't been this level of excitement over a visit like this since JFK came in 1961. Nixon coming up to meet Trudeau was big news too, but Nixon was no rock star like Obama. Should be quite a morning here, and great day to celebrate Canada-U.S. relations.

If you're keeping score, there are lots of touchy issues that I'm sure will get short shrift, such as what to do with Khadr post-Gitmo, how long should Canada stay in Afghanistan, how to justify buying tarsand oil. Lots of important things they could be talking about, but for now, I'm sure the focus will be on getting our economies in order.

And if you want to follow up to the minute coverage, there's CBC's live blog, and if you want to add your two cents to Obamania, check out WelcomeObama.ca.

CBC TV Interview on Wireless Substitution in Canada

I was recently interviewed for a story on wireless substitution in Canada that aired nationally on CBC TV. It's quite short, but an interesting segment overall, and features a Calgary-based company that's come up with a device that allows you to route mobile calls on to your wired phones inside the home. Not a bad idea, and it can be pretty practical, especially for people who get poor - or no cellular reception inside their home.

I don't normally post about things like this, but as I'm learning more about the new blogging platform, it looks like this is the only way I can share the interview so you can see it for yourself. You can view the segment here - it runs about 2.5 minutes.

Avaya Canada Analyst Day

Yesterday I attended Avaya Canada's analyst day here in Toronto. I participated last year, and it was good to gauge their progress since then. The local analyst community is pretty small, so it was a very friendly session.

For most of us, the main attraction was meeeting the new head of Avaya Canada, Gerard Baglieri. For what it's worth, he goes by the title VP/GM, so I really can't say CEO. Maybe Avaya's culture is more egalitarian than most, and maybe it's just a Canadian thing. Anyhow, Gerard is from NY, and during my 1:1 session, he strikes me as being very capable and focused, so don't let his title fool you.

I attended Avaya's global analyst event a few back in Boston, and for those of us who were there, most of yesterday was familiar territory. As such, I don't have much news to report, other than the fact that Avaya Canada seems very well aligned with the corporate storyline.

They did address some of the structural differences and dynamics of the domestic market, and how their plans to expand the channels up here will be more challenging. The difficulty with Canada is that the SMB market is more heavily skewed towards the very low end of the scale, and these businesses are often not a good fit for Avaya's offerings. Of course all vendors face that problem here, but it's fair to say Avaya will have to be more aggressive in Canada than the U.S. to achieve their stated target of driving 85% of their sales through channels within the next 3 years. Gerard has a tall order ahead, and time will tell.

We saw a variety of presentations throughout the day, and they all reinforced the core themes we saw in Boston - namely, Avaya feels they are ready now to become the #1 player, the company is now very focused on two main markets - Unified Communications and Contact Centers, and the overall business strategy is to become more channel-centric.

I elaborated on this further in my Boston post and elsewhere, and will say again that there's a good story here. Yesterday's session had both analysts and media, so there was some public coverage in the trades. I can steer you to one of these if you care to read more.

To wrap up, here are a few photos from yesterday...

Gerard Baglieri



Todd Abbott - he presented in Boston - was nice to see him come up to Toronto for this



Amir Hameed talking about contact centers



Colleague Ronald Gruia from Frost checking out the bat-phone, with a bit of a halo around him. He's special, but not that special! :-) He just happened to be standing close to the overhead light, although it sure looks like he's radiating brilliance....





Technorati tags: Avaya Canada, Jon Arnold

BCE Deal - How Do You Value a Telco?

The BCE privatization saga continues, and now the ball is back in BCE's court as they try to defend their valuation and trump KPMG's solvency opinion. There's a lot at stake here, and both sides are pulling out all the stops to get things to go their way. It's a bit like watching Detroit's auto execs going hat in hand to Washington for a bailout. If the deal falls apart, there are big time winners and losers, and a whole new environment for Canadian service providers.

I'm not following the minutiae of the story, but you can get a good taste of it here. It's high stakes accounting, banking and legalese, with lots of complexities around things like the criteria for determining solvency, the benchmark dates for making valuations, potential conflicts of interest for KPMG between BCE and the bankers, avoidance of paying break fees if the solvency test is the deal-killer, the impact of Canada's suddenly weak dollar, etc.

There are many angles and sub-stories here, and some will only be of local interest. In some ways BCE is better off remaining a public company, and long-standing shareholders will be happy because the huge drop in valuation this week only remains a paper loss. By staying public, BCE avoids taking on the $30+ billion in debt, which would severely restrict its ability to invest in network upgrades to remain competitive. If the deal dies, all bets are off, and BCE's competitors will have to expect a more aggressive posture from them. That in turn should keep the playing field a bit more level since BCE will be jumping back into the pool with both feet.

Not everyone out there will find the BCE story of interest, and that's fine. My main reason for posting about this is to draw attention to the challenges of valuing a telco, especially in tough economic times. I'm not an expert in business valuations, but it sure must be difficult to assess the value of the two primary assets of any telco - its subscribers and the network. BCE is a great case study since it's so public, and if I was a telco, I'd be watching this one closely. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see one or two major telcos/cablecos to falter in 2009, and they'll have the same issues to deal with. In today's world of IP communications it's much harder to place a value on the subscriber, and at some point, revenues from advertisers will be part of the mix, just like they are with the portal players like Google and Yahoo. I'm sure BCE will be a real test to determine just how well auditors can do their job in valuing service providers, and I guess we'll know once the final rulings are decided. Stay tuned.


Technorati tags: KPMG, Jon Arnold, BCE

Microsoft Canada Analyst Day

I spent most of today attending Microsoft Canada's analyst day here in Toronto. It was led by Sean Seaton and his team, and they sure covered a lot of ground. Sean is the Director of their Communications Sector, and just about everything they talked about was of interest to me.

Today Microsoft touches every facet of communications, and the opening vision statement sums it up pretty well: "to create experiences that combine the magic of software with the power of Internet services across a world of devices."

That covers pretty much everything, and Microsoft is working very hard to straddle the worlds of software and the Web - while at the same time, steering very clear of anything to do with hardware.

We saw a series of presentations covering desktop applications, Windows Live 3, mobility, the workplace, entertainment, and Mediaroom. On its own, each of these is very interesting, but together you have tip your hat to Microsoft for being so strong in so many places.

To me, though, the strongest story was the service provider market, where they really are becoming an important player. I'd say that was the core focus for most of us in the room, so we were a pretty attentive audience. I've seen much of this before in their Telco 2.0 presentations, and written about it in some of my Service Provider Views columns.

I'm going to leave it at that for now, but will touch on many of their service provider themes in my next column, which should run on Friday. So, you'll have to come back to hear the rest of the story.

Oh - kudos also to High Road Communications for pulling this event together and hosting it at their downtown offices. They always do a good job and I'd say Microsoft is being well served by them.

Aside from this, we had a recurring distraction running all day wondering if the BCE privatization deal was going to fall apart. It was a very ugly day, as the stock fell 34% in value, driven by concerns over a negative opinion by KPMG regarding BCE's ability to meet the solvency requirements for the deal. Canada's financial sector hasn't been shaken to it core like the U.S., but the magnitude of this deal is enough to undermine confidence in our entire telecom sector. That's another post in itself, but I'll hold off until the dust settles around BCE. Phew.


Technorati tags: Microsoft Canada, Jon Arnold, BCE

Calliflower Premium Launched

Regular readers will know that I've followed Ottawa-based Iotum for a long time, and have some news to pass on for their latest incarnation, Calliflower. This is a Web 2.0-style platform that's trying to bring more intelligence and value to audio conferencing.

At the recent Under the Radar event, Calliflower had two announcements of note. First is their integration with the iPhone. This is good news for two reasons. First, it exposes Calliflower to a huge market of tech-savvy consumers, some of whom will no doubt find this service of great value. Second, since Calliflower is mainly a business application, it makes the iPhone more relevant to the enterprise market - SMBs as well - and that's a big market that Apple very much wants to crack.

Secondly, Calliflower launched its Premium service, which comes with a modest monthly fee that will be attractive to power users, especially those doing international conference calls. I believe that companies like Calliflower/Iotum need fee-based offerings to survive long term, and it's great to them do this. The introductory pricing is $50 per month for two organizers, and with this you get file sharing, and local inbound dialing for North America and 4 other countries, plus the use of Voxbone's iNum global area code (883). You can read more about it in the press release here.

There's a lot of Web 2.0 here, and you can imagine how much more engaging these calls can be, layering file sharing and IM on top of the audio service. Plus, with the flat monthly fee, the per minute dialing charges are eliminated, making conferencing much more affordable for regular users - as well as attractive to everyone else who thinks that conference calling is expensive.

Oh - if you're keen, and are among the first 400 to sign up before November 30, Calliflower will add a 3rd organizer at no extra cost.

Technorati tags: Calliflower, Jon Arnold, Iotum

Deloitte Fast 500 Results Posted

It's late, but I wanted to get this post done before the week is out. With so much bad news out there, it's important to take notice of the good things, and I've got one here.

Deloitte compiles its annual Technology Fast 500 of high growth North American companies, and the 2008 list was just announced this week.

I haven't posted about this listing recently, but did post about their companion ranking - the Canadian Fast 50 - last year. I missed the Fast 50 this time around, and wanted to be sure I caught the 2008 Fast 500.

This listing covers many segments of the tech sector, and only a few are related to telecom or communications. 500 companies is a lot of ground to cover, and I can only comment on these sub-sectors, and within that, the companies that I follow or have some familiarity with. The only thing I'd like to say about the overall universe is that Canada accounted for 8% of the Fast 500 companies, which is probably about right.

With that said, all I'd like to do is draw attention to the companies I know something about. There's plenty else you can mine for yourself, and the detail is all there on their site.

First, waving the Canadian flag, I'd like to cite seven companies that made the list. I especially want to mention MyThumb Interactive, the highest rated Canadian company that I follow. Not only did they do very well here, but they made the Canadian Fast 50 last year. So, hats off to these companies, with three of them cracking the top 100:

MyThumb Interactive (#44), Sandvine (71), Impact Mobile (89), RIM (142), Vizible Corp. (171), Bridgewater Systems (423), and Redline Communications (462)

From the U.S., here are eight familiar companies you can feel good about:

GENBAND (63), Grandstream (109), BroadSoft (185), ShoreTel (215), Occam Networks (217), Cbeyond (406), Neustar (451), and Sonus Networks (493)

Some of you will have broader coverage than me, so if I missed any of note from this list, by all means, let me know. When it comes to recognizing growth stories, the more the better.


Technorati tags: Deloitte, Jon Arnold, Fast 500, Canada

Mitel's News - Managing in Tough Times

In a sign of the times, Mitel held an analyst roundup call this afternoon to update us on some important and timely developments. It was organized on short notice - today - and I guess they felt it necessary to get some clarity out there in advance of VoiceCon next week.

The call was quite short - about 15 minutes, and I couldn't make it, but got a debrief right after from Mitel's Kevin Johnson. I don't often do newsy items like this, but I think it's telling about the precarious state of the telecom market, and of course, the economy in general.

In short, Mitel is reducing headcount, although the number was not disclosed. This is a private company, after all, so they are not as obliged as public companies to elaborate. What they did say was that two senior, high profile management members were effected, and they're well known to the analyst community. It's not clear if the names should be public at this time, so I'll just leave it at that.

It's never good news to hear about cuts, especially with people you know. One of my long time colleagues at BroadSoft was part of their recent cutback, and many companies are rightfully seeing the need to cut costs now in anticipation of a slowdown in new business.

Mitel was clear about this, and emphasized how this is particularly true for the SMB market, which is core to their business. SMBs are by nature cost-conscious, and in tough times will stop spending pretty quickly.

While Mitel isn't the only vendor cutting back, they're a pretty big player in the SMB market, and if you're looking for a canary in a coal mine signal, this is a pretty good one. Don't be surprised if you start hearing similar stories pretty soon from their competitors. Signals have been pretty strong about cuts at Nortel, and everyone is facing similar challenges right now.

That said, the call was not all gloom and doom. This is nothing like the implosion happening in the auto sector right now. That's downright scary. The good news was that Mitel will be launching their UC solution at VoiceCon next week, and this is probably the best and most public showcase for how well things have gone with the Inter-Tel acquisition.

I won't be at VoiceCon I'm afraid, but you won't have to look far to hear how the launch is received from those who will see it first hand. For the overall sake of the IP telephony space, I sure hope it's a hit.


Technorati tags: Mitel, Jon Arnold, Unified Communications, VoiceCon

We Won't Get Fooled Again....Canadian-style - VOTE!!!

Well, you know how that song goes - meet the new boss....

I'm not much of a political pundit, but as the U.S. election looms, I just had to share this goodie today. Canadians are well thought of for being so damned polite - we don't win many wars being this way, but we don't start any, either.

Anyhow, if you can't get enough poking fun at Sarah Palin, you'll just love this piece of satire, Canadian-style. It's big news up here, but for those of you outside Canada, this may not have crossed your transom yet.

Here's the story. A couple of popular Montreal DJs managed to convince Sarah Palin to call them on Saturday, under the guise she would be speaking with Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France. The premise was that he wanted to wish her well on the election, and she took the bait. These guys are infamous for pulling stunts like this - aka the Masked Avengers - and it worked like a charm.

This is too funny, and if you're having second thoughts about jumping on the McCain bandwagon, you might want to check this out. Tina Fey couldn't have done it better, and if a couple of Canadians can fool the VP-to-be, let's not think what could happen if the real bad guys tried this. No moose on the loose would be safe....

Anyhow, here's the article from today's Globe & Mail about the interview. Embedded in the writeup are links to the audio version of the interview, along with some associated video clips.

All kidding aside, this post is a great excuse to encourage people to get out and VOTE!!! It's one of the few things left that matter in a democracy, and we all know how much is at stake this time around. I'm pretty certain the new boss on Wednesday won't be the same as the old boss, and that should tell you whose side I'm on.

And just to show you how clever I am, if you saw the front page of today's Globe & Mail you'll be all smiles. There's a nice big photo of Barack and his wife shaking hands with The Boss himself, Bruuuuuuuuce and his wife. Too bad he's not the VP - how cool would that be?

As a coda, I just have to say that for all you techies out there, this election is going to be really special given all the real-time tools we're using now. Hardly any of this stuff was around in previous elections - YouTube, IM, Twitter, Facebook, etc. As a society, we've never been so connected, and this has all kinds of implications for the media, the democratic process and the role of privacy in our lives. That's good news for people like me who make a living trying to understand these things, but more importantly, these are the tools of the Net generation, and if this gets them engaged in the real world, and brings them to the polling booth, then I'm the first to say technology is helping make the world a better place.



Technorati tags: Sarah Palin, Jon Arnold, Barack Obama, Masked Avengers, Canada, Bruce Springsteen

CDN Channel Elite Awards

Last night I attended the Channel Elite Awards here in Toronto. It was a nice gala to honor the winners from the annual awards organized by Computer Dealer News.

I was recently invited to be a judge for these awards and reviewed about 70 submissions along the way. It was a good experience, and part of the payoff was attending the gala.

Paolo Del Nibletto was nice enough to involve me in the event, so a big thank you there. To learn more about the highlights and winners, here's his wrapup piece.












When taking our seats for the awards, I spotted a table at the front and took a seat that would give me a good vantage point for photos. Not until I sat down did I realize I was totally blocked out by "the camera guy". Ugh. He got great shots and video, but my spot was useless, and I had to get up and get beside him every time I needed a shot. Nothing is easy...



Technorati tags: ITBusiness.ca, Jon Arnold, Channel Elite Awards

Videotron's Wireless Network Plans Announced

This is mostly a news item, and I don't do many of those. For many, it's an old news item by now, but not for everyone. I've been out of pocket almost all week, and this is the best I can do here, and didn't want this to pass unmentioned.

On Tuesday, Videotron announced their wireless network plans, and they're pretty ambitious. I was hoping to participate on the briefing call that day, but was too tied up at the Avaya analyst conference.

In the current economic climate, it's a huge deal to hear about spending like this. After spending $554 million to acquire spectrum during the AWS auction (which I've been following) - table stakes to get into the wireless game - they're now commmitting around $250-$300 million more to build an HSPA network. Videotron has said they were serious about wireless from the beginning and now they're putting their money on the table.

I can't help but think there's got to be a bit of political hubris at work here, as this is a Quebec story, not a Canada story. That message comes out loud and clear in the press release, especially with the proud claim how this investment will create 1,000 jobs for Quebecers. I'd be remiss to mention that the Bloc - their separatist party - fared well in the recent federal election, largely at the expense of the fading Liberals. I digress.

I should also note that Videotron is one of the biggest and best Quebec-based companies, and they are only in the wireless business to serve Quebec. Their population is a bit under 8 million, and I don't know if their Capex plans on a per-capita basis would be high or low relative to other markets. Regardless, it's happening, and that's the story here.

Anyhow, like Rogers, Videotron is a multimedia conglomerate, and have a lot of content at their disposal, so their plans extend well beyond voice. Bell diversified into content a few years back, but could never make it all work. However, networks are faster today, and we have smartphones now, so things will be much different for Videotron this time around. What also makes this interesting is that Videotron has a track record of being disruptive, most recently with their push into VoIP, which has been costly for Bell.

So, I'd expect similar things this time around with wireless. Actually, Videotron does offer wireless today, but over the Rogers network, which really limits what they'd like to do. Once they come to market on their own, Rogers will lose their traffic of course, but more importantly, they'll now be competing directly against each other.

Aside from this being a bold statement of investment in Quebec's communications infrastructure, it's great news for Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), who were announced as the prime vendor for their network buildout. NSN is on a roll in Canada, having also just been awarded the business to build a jointly-funded HSPA wireless network for Bell and Telus. Wow. Hard to believe how these two competitors are now working together, but it's a necessity. Rogers already has GSM, and once Videotron comes with HSPA, they would be at a huge disadvantage if they sat tight with their CDMA networks.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I guess. It's clear that the economics for each to build separate HSPA networks just don't work, and it sure will be interesting to see how they manage to share things once it's done and they go back to competing against each other. Or maybe - just maybe - they'll join forces to compete against the cablecos. How interesting would that be?

And just to complete the picture, today Shaw announced they were putting aside plans to build their wireless network. They're in a much smaller market than Quebec, but still spent $190 million to acquire spectrum licenses. Maybe they'll sell it to the highest bidder - if that's allowed - or maybe they'll jump back in the game if the market changes. Who knows?

With Videotron's news, the focus now shifts to what the other new wireless players plan to do - namely Globalive, Bragg/EastLink and DAVE Wireless. It's not easy raising money today for anything, let alone yet another wireless network. This sure sets the stage for an interesting 2009 in Canada's wireless marketplace, and I'll be back on this soapbox again soon.


Technorati tags: Videotron, Jon Arnold, AWS auction

The Ericsson Experience Center Comes to Town

It's not quite the circus coming to town, but the Ericsson Experience Center isn't too far off when it comes to a very cool road show that only analysts and the media could love.

I was one of those analysts invited to attend the Toronto stop on their travelling roadshow today, and as vendor experiences go, this one was right up there. I've seen these types of roadshows before, and you really have to see it to appreciate how sophisticated the inside of a trailer can get.

It's a great way to showcase all the cool things Ericsson is doing with both wireless and wireline technologies. We started first with wireless, and got a look at some of the equipment they're using to support HSPA and LTE, both for in-home and backhaul. I'm not an expert in wireless infrastructure, but this has long been a strong suit for Ericsson. They made it clear that these technologies have utility in both emerging markets with little existing telecom infrastructure as well as urban markets that need higher speeds than what their wireline broadband connections can deliver.

On the wireline side, we saw some really neat demos of IPTV, some of which is in the market today, and some just in the lab. They did a nice job showing how well integrated video and wireless services can be. One example was demonstrating how live streaming video from a cell phone can be uploaded to television to report a robbery in progress. Citizen jouralism 2.0 at its best. Other examples included a more interactive experience for watching sports, and using all the multimedia tools while watching TV - voice, chat, email, ordering concert tickets, etc. If the IMS vision ever truly comes to fruition, it sure looks like we'll never, ever have to get up from the couch except to replace the batteries in the converter.

All told, it was a great way to get an up-close look at what Ericsson is doing. Since most of this happens under the hood, I can't think of a better way to understand and experience all the technology they bring to enable these cool services. Am sure glad they came to town, and even gladder they invited me.

Ericsson Canada CEO/President Mark Henderson









Amit Kaminer of Seaboard Group - thanks for modelling this to scale! He was at Avaya this week too, so we've seen a lot of each other the past few days.




Technorati tags: Ericsson, Jon Arnold, Canada

IT in Canada - 1 Year Anniversary

I want to do a happy birthday shout-out here for IT in Canada, which turns its first anniversary this week. This portal is the creation of Toronto-based colleague Michael O'Neil (a Boston expat like me), a veteran IT consultant/entrepreneur.

I'm an occasional contributor to this portal, along with one of the microsites, UCinCanada.

These initiatives have been a work in progress for Michael and his team, and as his communique explains, things are unfolding very nicely...

"When we launched IT in Canada, our vision was "to stimulate and support a national dialogue on IT issues that are important to Canadians." With the help of our network partners, this vision has progressed farther and more rapidly than even we had hoped!"

"We've made progress against our goal of providing a thoughtful and thought-provoking resource for Canada's IT community, and had the pleasure of engaging with a membership that now includes nearly 400 professionals from across Canada, and from all facets of our industry. In the year to come, you can expect to see more activity, and more expansion: two other "branded" sites are poised to join the public ITFX Network, and we are actively planning the rollout of at least two (and possibly as many as four) new microsites between now and the end of January."

For anyone trying get the pulse of Canada's IT market or engage with the community at large, ITinCanada is probably the best thing going. I'm not aware of any other forums or portals of this nature in Canada, and all I can say is that I hope to see you there at some point. So, congrats on your first year, Michael, and I promise to get a post done for you soon!

Technorati tags: IT in Canada, Jon Arnold, Michael O'Neil, Unified Communications

VoIP Software Developer Job Opening in Toronto - Interested?

Think of this as a bit of a public service post.

Lots of things come my way, including recruiters looking for job candidates. In situations where I'm comfortable, I use my blog to help them by putting the word out to my readers. You never know, right?

So, here's a job opening that should be of interest to local software developers. What I can tell you is that this is a Toronto-based company that's "heavily involved in VoIP/SIP". It's a full-time position, and the pay package seems pretty good. I'm not a developer, so I can't really gauge the money thing any more than that. Hey, work is work - it's tough out there.

If you're interested, please drop me a line, and I'll be happy to put you in touch with the recruiter for the full story. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Technorati tags: VoIP software developer, Toronto, Jon Arnold