London, Part 1 - British Telecom, Focus 2024

This was the first of two events I attended on this week’s London trip - Focus 2024, British Telecom’s analyst event, which was a first for me in-person. The second stop was UC Expo, and I’ll get to that in my Part 2 blog post after this.

Am just sharing some of my photos here with brief commentary. I was only able to attend Day 1 of BT’s event, so my takeaways are limited. In short, BT seems to be well-along the AI path, talking a lot about automation, and building flexible networks to support today’s distributed organizations. Also heard quite a bit about network security, which is a must with the growing volumes of data these networks have to handle.

Below, CEO Bas Burger, Matt Swinden and Chet Patel

Below - Charlie - special guest speaker, and totally NDA, so no photos. In short, he shared fascinating insider insights about the global state of fraud, threats, disinformation, etc., and the geopolitics of what’s happening at a state/nation level. Of course, it’s bad, and likely worse than you can imagine. On a more positive note, the food and bar service were very good! Next - during the reception, and building lobby. They do a great job with branding - maybe a bit OTT, but that’s what big telcos do.

Hosting a LinkedIn Live Event with Andy Purdy of Huawei USA - Tomorrow at 2ET

There’s a first time for everything, and in this case, it’s hosting a LinkedIn Live event. I’ll be in conversation with Andy Purdy, CSO for Huawei USA, covering 5G ground related to cybersecurity, data privacy and open source.

We’ll have a lot to talk about, where the focus will be on the technology issues, challenges and opportunities - and I hope you join us. We go live tomorrow - Wednesday, Aug. 18 - at 2pm ET, and all the details are here on my LinkedIn event page, and to watch the replay, sign into LinkedIn and then use this link..

My Next Webinar - with Metaswitch - Enabling Remote Working

Remote working is the topic du jour now, and everyone is either asking about it or weighing in on how to do it. Being an analyst, I fall into the latter category, and it doesn’t hurt that I’ve been home-based for a long time.

For this webinar, I’m a guest speaker, and will be joined by John Gillespie from Poly, and another independent, Andrew Ward. The event will be hosted by Metaswitch, so the audience will mainly be their carrier customers, but it’s open to all.

We’re doing a Town Hall format, so after some brief presentations, we’ll open it up to the floor, not just for questions, but also hear how their customers are dealing with remote working. The webinar is next Tuesday, March 31 at 11am ET, and here’s the landing page to register. Hope you can join us.

Next Stop - Huntsville, AL and Adtran

Got home from Twilio’s event late Thursday, and didn’t even bother to unpack. Barely home two days, and back out again, this time to Huntsville, AL and Adtran’s Connect event. Haven’t been to an Adtran event for a few years, and am glad to be back in the loop with them. Basic details are here on my Event Calendar page, but I’ll have more to share here and on social media over the next few days.

Mavenir Analyst Day - Quick Take and Pix

It’s been quite a week - or two, actually. Last week, I drove to - and back - from Florida for a much-needed family visit. A day after that, I was off to Dallas for Mavenir’s analyst day, then to San Francisco for Twilio’s SIGNAL conference. Both events were first-timers for me, and Mavenir was of particular interest since I’m not that strong on wireless, so this was a good way to get caught up.

That said, the event was pretty much under NDA, so I don’t have a narrative to share. There certainly is a good story here, especially to give carriers an alternative to the Tier 1 mobile vendors, and Mavenir is one of those “best kept secrets” kind of players. Over time, my learnings will come out in other ways, so for now, I just have some photos to share.

First, some pix from the event, both during the sessions and the demos. And then, there’s this fantastical “George” poster. Take a close look - “master of magic” - and deep in the heart of Texas - kinda has that travelling medicine show look, and it’s not a stretch to say that sometimes applies to tech companies selling complicated solutions that buyers don’t really understand. But no, not here at Mavenir, right? :-)

The event was held at the hotel - Zaza - and it’s one of the most eclectic hotels I’ve been to. Definitely gotta come back here for fun. All kinds of quirky sculptures, paintings, photos and knick knacks. Check out their shuttle vehicle - soooo Texas. And then, my friendly man at the front desk. This hotel has a cool, retro vibe - really - really slow elevators, and on the desks in our rooms - pencils (not pens), paper clips and staplers - when was the last time you saw or used those? And for the topper, he’s showing off their manual credit card imprinter, which they actually use. Millennials have probably never seen one of these analog relics, but hey, they still work - even if the broadband is slow!

Ribbon Communications, Perspectives18 - Photos and Quick Take

Am back now from the Ribbon Communications conference in Los Angeles, and definitely glad I went. For me, there were both good answers and new questions, and I'm going to explore those in a separate post that will run next week on the BCStrategies portal. For now, I'll just share a few high-level impressions, along with some photos to give you a feel for what was on tap there.

First is the changing of the guard, with Fritz Hobbs taking on the CEO role, and David Walsh taking on a more focused role as Founder of Kandy. Fritz Hobbs is unknown to pretty much everyone I spoke with, and clearly he's a finance guy, not a tech guy. He said very little on stage, so it's hard to tell how he's going run things, but it's safe to say he'll be focused on keeping shareholders and investors happy. David's entrepreneurial and visionary style seems likely to be applied to Kandy rather than the entire organization, so it's also hard to tell what his overall impact is going to be now.

Speaking of Kandy, that was clearly the focus of the conference, and we didn't hear much about the core products that drive revenues and get the attention of analyst houses that track market share and build forecasts. This was also the case at last year's conference, but with the newly-formed Ribbon being a public company, I was surprised about that. We heard even less about how Kandy is actually doing - lots of use cases, customer success stories and touting of CPaaS and UCaaS capabilities, but no metrics. David Walsh made it clear that it's too early for that so let's just move on.

I really liked the clear focus on how Kandy is a great way to leverage the cloud so service providers can be more competitive, not just against other carriers, but the disruptors like Amazon and Twilio. It's debateable how much of a threat those players really are, but they're definitely in the mix, and service providers really do need an innovation engine to bring new services to market, and that's exactly Kandy's MO. Sound like another platform provider serving the carrier market? I'll have more to say about that in my BCStrategies post. And with that, let's shift from text to images with a few photos from the event - and to follow further, check out the twitter feed, #RBBNP18.

New CEO, Fritz Hobbs

David Walsh, no longer CEO, but now Founder, Kandy, and I love those cons - my kind of sneaker.

Patrick Joggerst and Bita Milanian

Innovation Panel

Service Provider Panel

10-piece band AMFM, who played throughout the show - great energy and very fun!

The LA sunset - a hotel specialty - did I pick the right cocktail for this conference  or what?

Next Stop - Los Angeles and Ribbon Communications

Got industry events happening during the next two weeks, so it's travel time again. On Sunday, I'm flying to LA for Perspectives18, the annual confernce for Ribbon Communications. I've been to a few of these, but this marks the first Perspectives event under the Ribbon name, since the merger between Genband and Sonus happened shortly after last year's event.

I've always struggled a bit with the rationale for this pairing, and hearing more about how it's working out will be a primary focus for next week. Also, the messaging last year was heavy on Kandy, their CPaaS platform, and am keen to hear the progress report nearly a year later.

More details are here in the Event Calendar section of my website, and to follow the updates, my twitter handle is @arnoldjon, and for Ribbon's feed, it's #RBBNP18.

Hackonomy - How BroadSoft Helps Service Providers Succeed with the Cloud

I wanted to start off 2018 with my extended thoughts about BroadSoft, a company that has continuously stayed on the forefront of innovation in our space from my earliest days as an analyst in 2001. Among independents, I can't think of many others that fit the bill, and as the industry continues to consolidate, this is a good time to reflect on what they have done right to be successful.

Not only is the technology changing so quickly, but the barriers to entry are getting higher. In today's market, it's not enough to have great technology, and slick marketing will only take you so far. Competing on price is a race to the bottom, and what really makes the difference is having a customer-centric vision, and a culture that allows the business to innovate around these levers. Very few companies do it well over time, and there are lessons to be learned from BroadSoft.

That's what I've tried to capture in my latest analysis, and you can read it here. The format is a bit different, but with all the writing I do, I'm always looking to try new things to connect with my followers. Feel free to share, and as always, your comments are welcome.

Genband Perspectives17 - Quick Take

As usual, I just have time to post a quick take on Day 1 from the conference, along with some photos. I'll be writing up my thoughts in a separate post after the event, and will be posting that on UCStrategies, so watch for that over the next few days.

In short, Genband is making big strides with Kandy as a platform play to help carriers compete in today's hyper-competitive market. Much like how Cisco is focusing heavily on Spark for their collaboration story - instead of all the other pieces around this LOB - Kandy is the main story so far here. Genband is transitioning away from hardware - but it's still the biggest part of their revenues - and so far, we haven't heard anything about those lines of business. So, to whatever extent Kandy is actually generating revenue, it's the big focus here, and perhaps it's necessary to keep their carrier customers in-house rather than drifting over to the unspoken competitor, BroadSoft.

That said, there's a lot to like about what Genband is doing with Kandy, and I'll have more to say about that in my proper analysis. So far, Genband has done a great job articulating the opportunity for carriers to differentiate via Kandy, but takeup has been slower than expected, and there are lots of reasons around this.To be fair, we heard about lots of success stories, so good things are happening here. Otherwise, Genband is in a "quiet period" with Sonus, so nothing is being said about where that's going, but it seems like a logical move, especially if you view Genband as a consolidator along the lines of what Mitel is doing, most recently with Toshiba.

The other partnership of note is with Five9, and we heard a good update from Wendell Black. Adding contact center may seem like a stretch for Genband, but the integration with Kandy makes this an appealing option, especially for SMBs who are frustrated by how long it takes for their incumbent vendor to make changes to enable a better customer experience. Given how service providers are being wooed away by the likes of Twilio and various OTT players, this is an important move by Genband to help their customers retain more business, especially as the lines between UC and the contact center become blurred.

Time's up, so I'll stop now, and hope you'll read my follow-on post after I digest everything from the conference. Until then, here are some photos to give you a sense of the vibe here from Day 1. Otherwise, you can keep tabs in real time by following the conference twitter feed - #GBP17.

patrick Joggerst, EVP

CEO David walsh

Judit andrasi, ceo immmr

network evolution panel

the soul tones - great band, keeping the energy level high

this private tour on monday was really great and would love to see a game here someday.

view from the press box - everything is original here for the 3rd oldest ball park in mlb - even the phones!

the WS trophy case - a lot of what we saw isn't open to the public - this stuff was great.

great statue for dodger legend #1

only in la - palm trees, baseball and a great skyline view

Do You Have a Mobile Strategy?

That's a fair question, as well as the focus of my latest article for Internet Telephony magazine. I've been writing a monthly column there for a while - Rethinking Communications - and in the current issue, this is the theme I'm exploring.

Mobility is ubiquitous and becoming even more so.There are many things you could do - and should do - but more importantly, you need a plan. This can be a huge topic, and my article touches on three aspects of that - BYOD, BYOI and service providers. All are different, and the mix will depend on your environment, as well as where you want to take mobility - which of course is all about having a plan.

I welcome you to read the article, and hopefully that will help focus your thinking on mobility. Following that, I hope you continue reading my future articles there.

GENBAND Takeaways - In Charlie We Trust

Had a chance to reflect on GENBAND's Perspective 2011 event during the flight home last night. I posted some thoughts yesterday, and tweeted a bit, but wanted to share a bigger picture perspective with you here.

For me, it's all about this man - In Charlie We Trust. Stick with me - the "we" may not be who you're thinking of.



Charlie Vogt - President and CEO - the most important telecom exec in America? Maybe.

I've actually never met him, and he wouldn't know me from anybody. Had chances to chat with him yesterday, but didn't - I kinda like it that way - the time will come, though. I don't know him personally, but I know the backstory and the territory. The two cornerstones of their business - at least hardware-wise - are media gateways and session border controllers. I produced my share of quarterly MGW reports when I was at Frost & Sullivan, and am pretty sure I was the first industry analyst to produce a report on the SBC market (remember Aravox, Netrake, Newport Networks, Nextone, Kagoor...?). As we know, Acme is the last man standing from those days, and now everyone is gunning for them, including GENBAND. I could go on, but you get the idea.

It's been a bumpy ride with GENBAND, and you can argue they're stuck in a sunset business, and have tried to patch several orphans together to create a nextgen IP frontrunner. Somehow, he's kept their investors onside and hung on long enough to pick up some very strong assets, especially Nortel. Well, now things are getting really interesting. You don't often see industry analysts and financial analysts in the same room, and we're all keen to hear how GENBAND is going to take things to the next level.

So, what does this have to do with this guy?



Am sure some GENBANDers and their fellow Texans will know this spot in Austin (my new fave city), where I was for the last ITExpo. Just like patrons of the Thirsty Nickel put their trust in beer, telcos should put their trust in Charlie. I'm saying this for two reasons.

First, GENBAND is betting the farm on one thing - network transformation. As Charlie said, if telcos fail in the transition to IP, so will GENBAND. Of course, the opposite is true, and that's what the pre-IPO crowd wants to hear. I just like his honesty - you don't often hear execs talk about what could sink their company. For many of us, TDM is so 2004 and all we can think about is the iPhone 5. Well, as we heard a few times yesterday, TDM will be around in big telcos for a long time still, so there must still be gold in those hills. GENBAND knew what they were getting with Nortel, and now have an incredible opportunity to be THE vendor to take this customer base into the promised land of IP.

Charlie also pointed out that it's pretty much impossible for one vendor to totally dominate their space over time, and that Acme is now facing stronger competition. No argument there, and he feels they have nowhere to go but up with SBCs. Time will tell, and let's save that topic for another time.

Both Acme and BroadSoft have done well by going public, and even though Tekelec is now going the other direction, you can only conclude the time is right for GENBAND. They're now at critical mass with customers, revenues, headcount and global footprint, and whether Charlie truly has a grand plan, or things just fell into place over time, I like their chances.

The main question for me is can they migrate their customers fast enough? Veraz met a similar fate when they went public, and simply had too much legacy and a declining revenue base to keep investors interested. We heard a lot about how GENBAND is moving more towards software and supporting third party developers, and they seem on the right track there. If the wireline telcos can hang on, GENBAND should be ok. Of course, that's easier said than done, as OTTs, cablecos and wireless operators keep eroding their customer base.

There's another reason to trust in Charlie - and I don't need new reasons to trust in beer. He made a passing comment yesterday that I thought was very telling - "I'm sure Huawei would love to buy us". Yup.

I read a couple of things into that. GENBAND is now getting big enough to be a nice target for Tier 1 global vendors, so that must feel good for builders like Charlie. More importantly, Huawei has long coveted an in for the U.S. market, and acquistion efforts (3Com?) have been their route of choice, but no luck so far. The U.S. and European telecom vendors cannot compete against China's cost advantages, so there's a self-preservation motive at work here. Sure, Huawei would be a lucrative exit for GENBAND at some point, but would it be the right thing to do?

Money and principle don't always mix, but I'm rooting for GENBAND to stay put. They've outlasted a lot of MGW players, especially in the U.S., and if they go, who's left here for the telcos to buy from? Of course there are many other MGW vendors out there, but GENBAND has managed to make themselves #1, and big telcos generally like to buy from market leaders. Am not a trade protectionist, but my New England roots are showing, and I like GENBAND better as a domestic company that's trying to become the global player that Nortel once was.

I'm also saying that because Canada has just gone through this losing its shining star in Nortel, and it sure looks like RIM is on the same path. If they go, it's scary to think who would be our top tech company - it gets pretty thin after RIM, and that's kinda worrisome. Anyhow, GENBAND doesn't have RIM or Nortel's legacy of innovation and R&D, but they're working on that, and I think that will eventually be their saving grace.

In that regard, there's a lot riding on Charlie and the trust we're putting in his hands. Wireline telcos need GENBAND, but in return GENBAND needs to deliver a clear vision and solution to get those telcos on terra firma to secure their future. I think they have the products - not so sure yet about the apps - but, of two things I am certain in terms of takeaways from yesterday. One - they understand the telco business and are earning their trust for the IP roadmap. Two - they understand their place in the vendor ecosystem and what they need to do to compete successfully.

There's lots more to say about all of this, as well as the event itself, but I'll stop now. It's too early for a beer, so I'll have my morning tea. In the meantime, what's your take on GENBAND? Are you with me?

UCStrategies Podcast - the Future for Service Providers

This week's UCStrategies podcast was about the future for service providers, especially incumbents. I've been keen on this topic for years, and still believe that the service provider of the future has yet to emerge.

Anyhow, Russell Bennett did a great job pulling this together, and I enjoyed being part of it. The podcast has just been uploaded to the UCS portal, and you can give it a listen any time. Enjoy!

Content for Service Providers - is this the answer?

The topic of content has been a big deal recently with service providers, and there are many angles to consider here. I just started exploring this, based largely on what's happening in Canada right now, and that's the focus of my latest Service Provider Views article on TMCnet.

I'm going to continue this thread over the next couple of articles, but am starting with the question around whether service providers should own their content or outsource it. Every situation is different, but it's a decision all service providers will need to make at some point. The article is running now, and you can read it here.

Are Telcos Giving Up on Landline too Soon?

That's the subject of my latest Service Provider Views column, which is running now TMCnet. Hope you give it a read - I'm worried about the state of telecom - are you? Let's discuss.

Service Provider Views - New Thoughts About Microsoft

My latest Service Provider Views column on TMCnet is running now, and revisits some earlier pieces I wrote about their Telco 2.0 strategy.

This column focuses on two main ideas. First - why service providers and Microsoft need each other, and second, a look at a few of the key industry trends that are transforming the role and definition of what it means to be a service provider in the Internet age.

There are a lot of interesting and timely themes to explore, and I'll be continuing in this vein over the next 1 or 2 columns. To get started, I'll steer you to today's piece, and hopefully you'll stick with me in columns that will follow it. As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.


Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, TMCnet, Microsoft

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

Service Provider Views - Managing in a Down Economy

My latest column for TMCnet is running now. This edition of Service Provider Views picks up from last month's theme about how carriers are being impacted by the economy. The health of service providers determines the health of vendors, and I have some thoughts on what's happening with both.

The main idea I'm trying to get across is that despite all the bad news, there are a number of companies bucking the trend, and are doing just fine. Apple is a a true anomaly, but there are quite a few companies peforming very well while their peers struggle along.

You can read the article here, and by all means, I'd love to hear your thoughts or other good news stories I've missed.


Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, TMCnet

SaaS Model for VoIP - Ari Rabban's View in IP Convergence TV

I haven't had much to report lately for the IP Convergence TV portal, although the video interviews I conducted at the recent IT Expo have now been posted there as well.

In addition, however, I do regular outreach with industry thought leaders to contribute Guest Opinion articles to the portal. The most recent piece comes from long-time colleague Ari Rabban, who should be familiar to my regular readers. Ari's been in VoIP as long as anybody, going back to the early days of VocalTec. He's currently the CEO of Phone.com, an interesting VoIP startup I've talked about previously.

Phone.com is a great example of a VoIP SaaS solution, and they have pretty cool offerings for both residential and SMB environments. I've used the SMB service a bit, and it's great having an 800 number to give out to people.

In today's economy, SaaS makes a lot of sense, and Phone.com looks to be in the right place at the right time these days. I'm sure we'll be hearing more good things in due course, and until then, I encourage you to give Ari's article a read. It was posted earlier today on the IPCTV portal, and is also runing now on the Phone.com blog.

Let me - and Ari - know your thoughts, and if you like it, you should sign up for the service!


Technorati tags: IP Convergence TV, Jon Arnold, Phone.com, Ari Rabban, VoIP

Service Provider Views - Dealing with a Down Economy

Sooner or later this economy catches up to everyone, and telecom is not immune. My latest Service Provider Views article on TMCnet takes a look at what I think operators need to be doing to minimize the fallout in a down market.

There's a lot to explore here, and this article is Part 1. In light of Skype's strong Q3 numbers, I decided to focus a bit on them as an example of things going right in a challenging environment. Some service providers will fare better than others, and this impacts everyone in the food chain. I'll look at some of these implications in the follow up article. For now, Part 1 is online now, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, TMCnet, Skype

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