DNCL - Canada's Answer to the Scourge of Telemarketers

Been trying to get this out all day - just one thing after another.

This post is more of a public service announcement instead of the usual trail-blazing thought leadership you find here - but still of interest, at least to Canadians! :-)

So, we finally have DNCL - our Do Not Call List - to keep those pesky telemarketers away. This just came out about two weeks ago, but it really only popped into my mind yesterday.

It's funny how I spend most of my time with emerging technologies and following trends that may disrupt the world of telecom as we know it - but something as pedestrian as DNCL in my own backyard completely eludes me. Why is that???

I've seen this mentioned here and there in the news and the blogs, but never gave it a thought for what it means to me as a consumer. Yesterday, though, I happened to catch a tiny item in the paper about it, explaining DNCL and how to register. Duh - well, OF COURSE I SHOULD DO THIS. It may get lonely working from home, but it's not so bad that I look forward to hearing about the latest time-shares or home security deals or adult dating services, etc.

So, it took all of about 2 minutes to visit the National DNCL website and register our number. Done. Seems like a good use of taxpayer dollars to me.

They say it will take about a month for this notice to take effect, so I'm hoping these calls will tail off by then. Working from home, I have to tell you, we get about 3-4 of these every day. For those of you working in offices, you have no idea what you're missing, and what goes on during this quiet time at home. Thanks to the magic of call display, any time I see a toll free number calling, you just know it's from one of those people. I always let it ring through to VM - I wonder why they NEVER leave a message??? Hmm.

However - and here's the rub - the DNCL only protects us from Canadian telemarketers. No surprise there. Did you know --- that a lot of these stupid calls come from the US? You know, those area codes from places you barely recognize, like Colorado, Idaho or South Carolina. Nobody I know is calling our house from these places - ever - and the DNCL isn't going to catch them. Not much you can really do there, but DNCL is definitely a step in the right direction.

So, for those of you who didn't know - and need to know - now you know - and I'd encourage you to sign on ASAP. Happy Thanksgiving!


Technorati tags: National DNCL, Jon Arnold, telemarketers

My Jazinga Review

I�ve been trialing Jazinga for a while now and have waited for the most recent updates to get this review done. I�m really enjoying using it, and it�s become my default telephony system. I use that word loosely, since I work solo, and am not exactly a typical PBX user. I don�t have anyone to transfer calls to, but there are many other features that make my life better and my work day more productive.

Before sharing my thoughts about Jazinga, I didn�t realize the most obvious thing about Jazinga until sitting down now to write about it. I�m a marketing guy at heart, so these things keep me up thinking more than most other people. Jazinga is a catchy name for a company, and it�s just hit me that the product itself doesn�t have a name, so by default I don�t know what else to call it. Maybe it�s time for a name-that-product contest???

I�ve gotten to know the Jazinga folks pretty well now, and in case you�re wondering, yes, they�re very typical of a tech startup � heavy on engineering and light on marketing. That�s ok by me � at this stage it�s much more important to get the technology right, and in my books, they�ve done a great job there. The marketing and branding will come, and along the way, I�m sure they�ll come up with a clever name for their offering. I hate to call it a product � seems so pedestrian � and it�s only partially correct, so giving this a name will be trickier than you might think. I�ll leave that hanging out there for now, and move on to my review.

I�ll start by saying that other beta users have reviewed Jazinga already, and they�re more techhy than me. You can find these posted on Jazinga�s website, and there�s some good commentary about what�s under the hood. I�ll focus more on what�s outside and my everyday experiences.

As others have noted, Jazinga is an interesting a hybrid � the box is a both a router and an IP telephony system. You basically get all the features of a PBX and QoS, as the system is able to prioritize voice over your broadband connection. Not only does that give you reliable service, but the audio quality is noticeably better than regular VoIP. For small businesses, this strikes me as a very important selling feature.

From a buyer�s point of view, Jazinga is a great value. They�ve used a lot of open source, which helps keeps the price down, and provides flexibility for adding new features and self-provisioning. It�s about as end-user centric as you can get, and ease of use is another hallmark of Jazinga. The earlier reviews have all picked up on the ease-of-use angle, and I can certainly vouch for that. Setting up the system takes little time, and is largely self-provisioning, so it�s ideal for SMBs, as they typically don�t have much in the way in-house IT support.

Not only does Jazinga come with all the telephony options you�d typically want to see, but they are continually adding new ones. It�s very easy to set up an auto attendant with greetings for each employee, and then customize how each person wants to receive their calls. For me, the conferencing feature has the most utility. It�s easy to set up, and very handy for initiating concalls on the fly. The only downside is that callers have to dial in to a toll number, but these days, most people don�t have a problem with that.

Another great thing about Jazinga is that it�s extensible. It�s built to keep taking new features, and end users don�t have to pay extra for these. The most recent releases - beta 1.11 and 1.12 � have some noteworthy additions:

- Status screens in the Administration UI to monitor your Internet connection and system configuration

- Forwarding of voice mail to email

- Addition of portals for individual users. Previously, only system administrators had portal access. This means end users can now access their voicemail via the portal and update their personalized settings.

- System configuration and backup settings can now be saved to the desktop, giving end users more control and access to their communications tools.

- Two new calling features to make the telephony service more valuable to SMBs:

1. Dial around � you can now call into and through Jazinga from any phone, anywhere and save on long distance charges.
2. Callback � another way to do this, and works like other mobile VoIP callback services.

To use Jazinga, you need an IP phone, and they support all the major brands � Cisco, Linksys, Aastra, Polycom and Snom, so it won�t be too hard to get this going. Once you see it up close, you may wonder why anyone would need a PBX. Aside from being easy to use, you feel empowered right away, as each end user can customize their greetings and call control preferences - and just as easily change them as their needs dictate. It�s also fun setting up the front door, which is where you record your IVR greeting prompts for each extension and conferencing options. Then you can add your own music on hold and really make it your own.

Being open source, Jazinga has made it easy to keep adding features without increasing your costs. That�s a pretty strong driver, as the system always stays current and keeps getting more powerful with each release. SMBs have never really had it this good before.

This would be enough for most IP telephony solutions, but Jazinga is thinking further out, and this is where it gets more interesting for me. For SOHOs and some SMBs, many, if not all end users will be home-based. Jazinga can very easily be used as the hub for both home and business communications. No reason why your landline � analog or VoIP � can�t be hooked up, giving you PBX features in the house. How about that? Think of the fun you can have with your greeting prompts � �for the kitchen, press 7�, or �for Mom, press 6�. How can you not want to do this?

Let�s take this a step further. Once you�ve got home and business all running off Jazinga, why stop at voice? Here�s where the magic of open source comes into the picture. With wireless IP running all over the house/office, you could provision all kinds of other services � remote printing, FMC handoffs, etc. Let�s not stop there. As we start broadband-enabling all kinds of devices and machines, the possibilities really open up, especially around smart home-type services. Think about starting the roast remotely, controlling the thermostat or monitoring your home security or surveillance systems.

I�m getting a bit ahead of the game, but the likes of Microsoft are well along that path, and Jazinga could become a perfect hub solution sooner than you think. You just have stop thinking about this as just an intelligent telephony router. When you do, you then need to start wondering why service providers aren�t running to partner with Jazinga. Not just telcos, but anyone with a wire into the home � ISPs, cablecos, utilities, etc. Lots of possibilities here for sure.

It�s a very important part of the puzzle, simply because Jazinga isn�t a service provider. You could certainly buy the box retail or through a distributor channel and just go with the BYOB model. That works, but then it�s just a sell-through box solution for Jazinga. That�s ok, but then it starts to sound too much like Ooma, who I�ve written about � and still use. It�s a great service, but like Jazinga, it�s just another box on my desk, and I really don�t give it a thought. That�s too passive a model for me.

I�ve been saying this about Ooma from the beginning � the service provider is their best friend and route to market. Let them brand Jazinga and roll it out to their subscribers as a total package. That makes so much more sense to me, and is a real win-win for both parties. Think about how effective that would be for any carrier trying to break through the clutter in the SMB space. I know Jazinga is thinking this way too, so give it some time, and I�m pretty confident this will be a much bigger story going into 2009.


Technorati tags: Jazinga, Jon Arnold, SMB VoIP

Loose Ends - Skype and the Great Firewall of China, VON/Virgo Deal, Oz/Nokia Deal

I don't get paid to blog, so when I'm busy with consulting work, I fall behind on the news. There is always interesting stuff going on, and before the week is out, I wanted to quickly draw attention to three stories of note. These are all of interest to me, but it's way too late to post about them. So, for the laggards out there, here are three items you might want to explore further.

1. Skype - China/censorship/privacy - you get the idea. Wow, this is an interesting - but not altogether unsurprising story. Barely a month after the Beijing Olympics, here we go again, with the dark side of state-run media rearing its ugly head.

You don't have to look far for coverage of this story, or think too hard about how insidious all this is, but it's another reminder of how the Internet is impacting our lives. Ultimately, it may be a borderless technology, but as they say, the "great firewall of China" isn't quite onside yet.

I'd start first with Phil Wolff's posting on Skype Journal, then Om Malik, and I'm sure you'll find many others from there. I should also add this is not a new problem, and Skype is not alone in this morass - other IM platforms have had similar issues. RIM too, by the way.

Aside from the coverage you've already seen on this, I wanted to add some local coverage that I thought was really great. It ran in today's Globe & Mail, and talks about how a lab researcher here at the University of Toronto - Nart Villeneuve - uncovered some online trails that led him to all kinds of censorship and monitoring in China with Skype traffic. It's a great read, and am pretty sure will add valuable first-hand insight for anyone following this story. I should add that local colleague Jim Courtney - a regular Skype Journal contributor - picked up on this today, as have others like Om Malik.

I'll end on that triumphant note, as it's great to see some homegrown investigative work getting to the bottom of a truly international issue.

2. Virgo acquires VON. This is a much smaller scale story, but still of interest to many of us in the space. Several of us got wind of this news at the IT Expo a few weeks back, but it's just becoming official now. Andy Abramson had a good wrap on this the other day, and there's not a whole lot more to say about it right now.

Well, there is, but it's end of the week, and I'm kind of done now. That said, I wanted to at least acknowledge the story because it's evident from my recent conversations that most people don't know this has happened. Now you do.

3. Nokia acquires Oz Communications. Yet an even smaller story, but also of interest to me. Everyone knows Nokia and how they're doing lots of cool things with Ovi and just launched their iPhone killer. But most of you don't know Oz - a bit like saying you don't know Jack.

I've followed them for a while, and it's another great Canadian success story. So, add a notch for our win column, which is a nice way to end the week as the weather gets colder and my Red Sox look to keep winning.




Technorati tags: Skype, Jon Arnold, Nart Villeneuve, VON, Oz Communications

Judging for the Channel Elite Awards

IT Business is one of the major tech trade publishers here in Canada, and they run a large stable of vertical titles. One of the publications, Computer Dealer News has an annual industry program called the Channel Elite Awards.

These awards are focused on IT solution providers, and they have 9 distinct categories covering the gamut, including managed services, collaboration, enteprise, SMB, etc. The Editorial team has asked me to be one of the judges, which involves reviewing submissions from dozens of IT services companies.

I'm in the midst of that process now, and it sure is interesting to learn about so many successful IT deployments. Am not sure if it's because so many companies use really outdated systems, or if they just haven't caught up yet to the latest technologies, but it's clear that a lot of IT companies are making a positive difference.

If you're thinking of submitting an entry, it's too late, but there's always next year. You can learn more about the program at the CEA website, and come back towards the end of October to see who the winners were. I don't know when the winners will be announced, but I'll meet them in person at the Awards Gala on October 28.

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

Jazinga Launches

Somehow, in the midst of everything else that kept me busy last week, I neglected to post about Jazinga's launch. Being Toronto-based, I'm always keen to support a local startup, especially one that shows this much promise. I've been beta testing their service for a while, and will be posting a review fairly soon. I've been waiting for the latest upgrades, which came just before my last conference. I hope to get this done before the week is out.

Back to the news. For those who don't know Jazinga, they have a premises-based IP telephony solution that's great for SMBs and SOHOs like myself. We all know about IP PBXs and open source-style solutions. Jazinga is a very practical, affordable alternative that's built around ease-of-use and a rich feature set. While most solutions are totally hosted or web-based, this has all the intelligence in the box, which doubles as a WiFi router/ATA.

I'll let the links tell the rest of the story, but if you want to hear more about it, I'll steer you to a podcast I did recently with their CTO, Shidan Gouran when I guest-hosted on Squawk Box.

So, a belated congrats to Jazinga on the launch, and here is some of the better coverage that I recommend you read - Telco 2.0,Garrett Smith, Andy Abramson, and PhonePlus Magazine.



Technorati tags: Jazinga, Jon Arnold, SMB VoIP

Toronto Tech Week - Highlights

Toronto Tech Week has been running all week, but yesterday was my only chance to attend. From what I saw, the content was quite good, and there's certainly no shortage of people here in Toronto who know what's going on with Web 2.0 and digital media trends.

Nothing much here on communications technologies, but that's to be expected. The closest was the session I moderated - mobile marketing. We had a pretty full room, and an engaged audience, which is my litmus test for a good session. The panelists did a great job touching on a lot of issues and I think everyone went away happy.

Overall, most of the sessions were oriented around Web 2.0 and social networking, with a lot of focus on what this means for marketers and advertisers. Pretty fascinating stuff, and while a bit removed from my everyday focus, it definitely has implications for my work.

Hats off to Dave Forde and his team for putting this together, and it sounds like TTW will become a regular event now, which is great news. I'm looking forward to coming back next time around.




Internet 2010 session...




Mobile gaming session - Dave Forde, far right...




Technorati tags: J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, Toronto Tech Week, Dave Forde

Fonolo - Top Pick by Judges at Mobilize

Here's another very good news story from another colleague, and this one is closer to home. Fellow Torontonian Shai Berger, and his company Fonolo made it to the list of companies presenting at GigaOm's Mobilize event this week in San Francisco.

It's ok if you're doing a double take here. Turns out that Mobilize and the IT Expo are the same week, and a number of people split their time at both shows. I saw Shai several times during the Expo, and wished him good luck when he left for SF on Wednesday.

So, it's been a good week for people I try to keep close to - Shai and Tom Howe, whose good news I just posted about earlier this morning.

Back to Fonolo. Twelve companies were selected to present their story at Om's Launchpad, with each being reviewed by a panel of 4 judges. I wasn't at the event, and am just getting this off the GigaOm post, which I strongly recommend you read to see how everyone did. Each company is summarized in the post, and goes on to show that Fonolo was the top pick overall among the judges, and rated third overall by the audience.

I don't know about you, but it's great news, and another in a growing list of accolades that Fonolo is compiling in its very short history.

Even though I'm an Advisor to Fonolo, I think it's pretty fair to say this is a company to watch, and I have no reservations about waving the flag too. We've got a lot of great companies in Canada, and it's especially nice to see one in my own back yard of Toronto doing so well on a big stage like Mobilize.


Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Fonolo, Shai Berger, GigaOm, Mobilize

Toronto Tech Week - September 22-26

For a change, I get to talk about a local event!

Last year saw the debut of Toronto Tech Week, which is a great initiative to create some community here, something I have long found lacking, at least in my line of work.

This year's event is coming up, running from September 22 - 26. The program has something for everyone, including a focus on startups, career options for tech, and competing priorities facing IT. There is also quite a bit of technology-oriented content, with three strong tracks - Web 2.0, software as a service, and new media/social media.

Colleague Dave Forde of Profectio has been the driving force behind this event, and in Year 2 it's scaled nicely, most due to the hard work and vision of Dave and his team. He was nice enough to invite me to participate, and I'll be moderating the Mobile Marketing 2.0 session on Thursday at 1 pm. We'll be exploring the role of mobility in marketing campaigns, and we have speakers lined up from Yahoo!, Silverback Wireless and Canoe.ca.

Should be a good session, and if you're attending the event, I'd love to see you there.


Technorati tags: J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, Toronto Tech Week, Dave Forde

Fonolo Gets Some Airtime

For regular readers of my blog, you probably know I'm a fan of Fonolo. I'll be upfront and say I'm an Advisor, but that aside, you have to admit they've got a pretty cool application.

I don't do their PR, but feel obliged to share some great mainstream exposure the company got yesterday. As you may know, Fonolo is based here in Toronto, and CBC is our major national broadcaster. They do great work and have a wonderful radio program called Spark. It's got a solid following and they are a great showcase for how technology is impacting modern life.

The CBC produces first-rate public programming, and I have to say it's one of the nice things about Canada. The media is more democratized here and it's more open to varying points of view. NPR is the closest I can think of for a comparable service in the U.S., but I suspect CBC has a more mainstream and very loyal following. If I'm sounding a bit too pro-radio, I'm showing my true colors. Radio has always been my favorite medium - nothing beats it for immediacy and intimacy - and it's sooo low tech - and it's free!

With that little op-ed out of the way, let's get back to Fonolo. Their CEO - Shai Berger (who is on his honeymoon right now - congrats!) got a great feature spot to open up yesterday's program. I missed the broadcast, but you can listen to the podcast here. Fortunately it's the first segment of the show, and runs about 5 minutes. So just click and enjoy - and then go check out the video demo that Shai talks about during the interview.

And if this doesn't explain why Fonolo has got a good idea, let me know and I'll do it myself.


Technorati tags: Fonolo, CBC Spark, Jon Arnold, Shai Berger, Canada

Can Bell Canada Stay Competitive? Alec Says No.

Colleague Alec Saunders had an action-speaks-louder-than-words post yesterday that read my mind perfectly.

I had exactly the same reaction as Alec after reading Bell Canada's current position on infrastructure spending in the Globe & Mail.

Basically, the storyline is that Bell does not plan to pursue a FTTH - fiber to the home - strategy to deliver the high end speeds to stay on par or get ahead of the cablecos. They're taking the prudent approach in balancing the Capex required to upgrade their networks versus the fiscal realities that privatization is about to impose on them. It really is a rock and a hard place scenario, and Bell ultimately seems to be playing it safe.

Too safe for Alec's liking - mine too. So much so for Alec that his post was a public declaration that Bell will not be able to meet his needs, and he's making the switch from DSL to cable. I just had to share this with you as I think Alec speaks to an issue that may come to haunt Bell.

Their rationale is that Bell's plans for DSL and fiber will provide sufficient speeds - up to 10 Mbps - for what the market needs. Hmm. That may hold for the general population, but a few years from now, that number is going to sound like it's from a bygone era. Maybe this means that IPTV is not in their plans now and that they'll rely more on Expressvu for video. Or maybe they're going to surprise us or change their plans as market conditions dictate, but for now, this doesn't sound like the way to go for a company that more than ever needs to be on the leading edge.

Technorati tags: Bell Canada, Alec Saunders, Jon Arnold, DSL

Blackberry Bold - Rogers is First to Market

Just wanted to briefly share some news that will be of interest to any RIM watcher.

The much-hyped Blackberry Bold was launched yesterday here in Toronto by Rogers, and is worth citing for a few reasons. I'm not much of gadget guy, but the Bold is a big deal, and I'll just wave the flag a bit here to say that Rogers is the first operator in North America to offer it. We're not winning a lot of medals in Beijing (although it's been a very good week!), and it's nice to talk about being first in something.

I wasn't at the launch, but local colleague Jim Courtney was, so I'll leave it to him to tell you about it first-hand. Jim knows RIM very well and had a great writeup about the launch that was posted last night.

Aside from the fact that Jim's post is a good read on the launch event and what the Bold means for Rogers (more than you might think), it was published as a guest post on GigaOm. That was really great to see in terms of giving Jim's post tremendous visibility and letting the world know that Canada does get its share of firsts.

An interesting subtext to this launch is the ever-evolving battle between Rogers and Bell for supremacy in Ontario, as well as nationally on the wireless front. Rogers has a killer one-two punch with the iPhone and now the Bold that keeps them top of mind in both the consumer and business markets.

Bell, of course, is trying to re-invent itself in the wake of privatization, and a big part of that has been their very new and very different branding campaign that's re-positioning them as a leading edge provider. And if you're local, you'll know why I said "providER". Lots to talk about there, but another time - this post is about steering you to Jim's review. Enjoy.


Technorati tags: RIM, Blackberry Bold, Jon Arnold, Jim Courtney, Rogers, GigaOm

Wireless Spectrum Auction Completed � Status Quo or Real Competition?

Canada�s AWS auction finally finished yesterday, and there should be no doubt about the perceived value of wireless spectrum. The final take was $4.25 billion � that�s a lot of free money for the federal government, and that raises an issue unto itself. How those proceeds are spent � or invested � will say a lot about what kind of a country Canada wants to be.

To me, it�s a philosophical issue as much as economic � these windfalls don�t come along often. It�s like getting a one-off giant tax refund that sets your head spinning about what to do with it. Pay off the credit card, take a family vacation, pay down the mortgage, fix up the house, top up the college fund? It�s not enough to retire on, but enough to make a significant dent in any of these noble causes. Any of these will improve your quality of life, so it�s a matter of figuring out what�s the highest priority.

It�s no different for the proceeds from this auction. If Canada wants to do the practical thing that no voter would oppose, they�ll just pay down the federal debt. If there�s some vision behind this, they�ll see this as an infrastructure issue to help Canada become more competitive and connected in the information economy. Of course, that�s what the auction is all about, as the winners will now get busy spending even more money building new networks or expanding/upgrading the ones they have already.

Fair enough, but what about people in remote or poor communities who cannot afford wireless and/or Internet services? This may not be a core issues for voters, but it sure represents a prime opportunity to take some leadership in terms of having some form of a national broadband policy. Countries like Korea and Sweden have gone down that road and the benefits are as clear as day. This is a rich topic that warrants more focus, and for that, I�m going to steer you to fellow local blogger Mark Goldberg, who is well versed, vocal and worth following. Mark also had a very insightful post this morning that puts a lot of this in perspective. Spend some time there - he'll be glad you did!

Back to the auction results. I posted about this recently and am not going to get into a long discussion � just wanted to touch on a few things that stood out.

- Not surprisingly, the incumbents � Bell, Rogers and Telus � did about 2/3 of the spending. This is pretty much in line with the amount of spectrum that was available for them to bid on. In the spirit of defending their turf, that�s to be expected, and validates how important any form of wireless spectrum is to them once it�s up for grabs.

- Globalive and Videotron were the next biggest spenders, but these two are on very different paths. Globalive has national ambitions, and I see them emerging as the fourth Canada-wide competitor � which is about all I think Canada can really support long-term. They have coverage pretty much everywhere but Quebec, and to address that, they�ll likely have to make a deal with Videotron, who is solely focused on Quebec. That will be an interesting scenario to watch.

- Notably absent was MTS/Allstream and the U.S. operators. MTS has had opportunities to become a national wireless player before, and however you want to spin that, it just doesn�t seem to be in the cards for them. I don't see this as a plus for their future.


More importantly � and to the question posed in the title of this post � what�s the score? Will this really give Canadians more choice, better services and lower prices? I think the status quo has largely been maintained, and that will hold if the new players � whether national or regional � simply play to the mass market and just focus on price or tweaking the everyday services � you know, voice 1.0. I could be glib and say that�s the Canadian way, but I�ve got to look for the silver lining here. As I�ve said before, there�s a great opportunity for new players to be disruptive and come to market straight out of the gate with voice 2.0 services.

Even better if it�s telco 2.0 or wireless 2.0 or web 2.0 or communications 2.0 � you get the idea. How about 3.0 � whatever that means? The main idea here is that they�re starting with a clean slate and can build the kind of networks to support market needs for the next 10 years. In my view, the incumbents are more motivated to acquire spectrum for defensive reasons. I think they will be as innovative as they need to be to keep this a 3 horse race - and no more than that.

Globalive can certainly make it a 4 horse race if they really take it to them, and that would help make this a more interesting market. Same goes for the regional players, especially Videotron. They have been very successful with VoIP in Quebec because they were disruptive, not just on price, but with faster speeds and creative bundling packages. I fully expect more of the same with them for wireless, so this will be another market to follow closely.

So, is it a brand new day for wireless in Canada? It�s too early to tell, but if it�s the same-old with both the operators and the federal government � we�ll just be getting Canada 1.0, and that�s a step backwards, not forward. Let�s hope not, and as subscribers, we have to vote with our wallets.

Consumer activism paid off around the recent iPhone launch here, and that�s a sign of hope that we have a say in this too. And believe me, the last thing the government wants to see after going through this exercise is the status quo. They�ll have a lot of �splainin� to do if that�s the end result, so their job is far from done.

While I'm not wanting to end on a down note, I can't help but ask the bigger question that's driving all this spending in the first place. If you build it, will they come? What if... what if the market actually is in equilibrium right now? The gold rush mentality today is based on the premise that wireless adoption lags other modern economies, so there's lots of upside to go yet.

Hmm. I'm not so sure. Adoption is lower here, no doubt - largely because prices are high, and the value just isn't there for everyone else. Sure, there are pockets where wireless service isn't available or good enough. By and large, however, I would argue that anyone who wants a cell phone these days in Canada has got one by now. Basic economics would dictate that if prices fall, demand will rise - so sure, new entrants will be fighting for the scraps, and they'll have to do it on price.

How on earth are these guys going to turn a profit after spending so much money to get into the game? I just don't get that. What if the mass market doesn't want 2.0 services? Then they all become Vonages, and the incumbents will cut prices until they all go away and we're back to square one again. Ugh. Let's hope not. All I can say is the faster the new players can bring 2.0 to the market, the better - it's our only hope for true competition.

Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, AWS auction, Canadian wireless, Mark Goldberg

IT in Canada Portal - New UC Post

Toronto colleague Michael O'Neil has been honing his IT in Canada portal for a few months now, and it's coming along nicely.

The portal covers a lot of ground and there's some very good content, focused primarily on IT-related issues. I've been recently added to the "Expert Ring" of contributors to the IT Forum Exchange, which is some nice local recognition. The Forum has several threads, which really are microsites covering a whole range of topics, and my most recent post is up there now, under the Unified Communications banner.

It's titled "Unified Communications - What's the Focus?", and I'm spelling this out to make it easier to find. Unfortunately, the portal only provides links to the home page - the design is still clunky, but the content is worth putting up with for a bit of extra work to find it.

I hope you enjoy the post, and I'll be contributing there on a fairly regular basis. I'm just one of many contributors, however, so what I really want you to do is discover the portal and see for yourself. And then, please tell me what you think, as Michael is always open for new ideas.



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

Consumers Speak - Rogers Listens

Wow - chalk one up for free speech and the power of the Internet! Just before the official launch of the iPhone in Canada, Rogers has caved to the mounting consumer backlash and revamped their price plans.

I think it's a great story showing how well people can rally about something they really care about. The iPhone is such a must-have gadget, especially here in Canada where we've been watching our U.S. neighbors lap it up in no time. Clearly Rogers realized it has mis-judged market sentiment and is making some concessions to avoid losing face altogether. Today's Globe & Mail has a good piece about this, and refers to other well-known Rogers gaffes - such as their "negative billing option" - which they had to go back on once they realized how strongly the market felt about it. As I've said before, they behave like this because they can, but when consumers speak with a strong unified voice, they simply had to do something. Once again, the online versions of articles in the Globe are the best barometers of Main Street - with almost 200 reader comments, this is a pretty strong validation that Rogers came half-way in a nick of time.

I say half-way, of course, because while the rate plans are more competitive, they still won't follow the U.S. model of unlimited usage pricing plans. And you still have to take out a 3 year contract to get the phone, so why lock them in from the start with the best possible plan?

I'm sure unlimited usage is the last straw for them, and I can see why they're holding back. No doubt, once we have new competitors following the spectrum auction, all the mobile operators will have to be more price competitive. I'm sure Rogers is holding unlimited as their trump card for when that time comes. For now, though, the plans are atractive enough that the iPhone will have a healthy debut, but probably not as strong as it could have been.

While we're on the topic of pricing plans, I'll point you to a nice post that Mark Evans wrote yesterday comparing pricing plans in various countries. There's a great comparison chart showing just how out of line Canada's pricing plans are for the iPhone.

Finally, I can't help but mention one other factor that may be at work here. Just after Rogers first announced its pricing plans last week, Bell countered with much more attractive pricing to go with its upcoming launch of the very hot Samsung Instinct smartphone. This is the closest Bell can come to the iPhone, and for people looking an alternative, this is a pretty good choice. Not only is the phone comparable feature-wise, with better pricing options, but they also offer 2 year, 1 year and no contract deals. I didn't see any takeup on this news, and Rogers cannot afford to ignore the competitors in its own back yard. Bell may still be in lame duck mode until the privatization deal closes, but Bell Mobility is the #2 mobile provider and is in a great position to offer something more interesting to counter Rogers. In mind view, this had to have played a role in Rogers's thinking around today's news.

Sure will be interesting to see how busy the Rogers stores will be tomorrow.


Technorati tags: Rogers Wireless, Jon Arnold, iPhone, Canada

Globalive Set to Enter Canadian Wireless Market - It's the Network, Stupid!

I'm not following the AWS auction blow-by-blow, but it's pretty clear at this point that Globalive is set to emerge as the big winner - so to speak. The federal government stands to earn a huge windfall - over $4 billion - for auctioning off the spectrum licenses - and I have no idea what they're going to do with all this loot.

Anyhow, once the dust settles, it looks like Canada will get a few new regional wireless operators, such as Shaw in the West, Videotron in Quebec and Bragg in the Maritimes. I don't think the market can support much more than that, as Manitoba and Saskatchewan already have local wireless operators of their own.

Aside from Globalive, there's one other bidder who will have quasi-national coverage - DAVE- Data, Audio Visual Enterprises. It's a venture between John Bitove (satellite radio) and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. To me, they're a real wild card since they don't have any operating experience in this space, and it's a new, unproven venture.

So, that leaves us with Globalive, which is a pretty interesting company. They are poised to come out of this with spectrum to cover all of Canada except Quebec, which about as close as anyone is going to get up here. For sake of transparency, I will say that I have done work on and off for Globalive, but nothing connected to wireless, so there's no hidden agenda here.

I can't think of anything like Globalive up here, but telecom is definitely their business. For a variety of reasons, they are well positioned - and financed - for becoming a wireless player, and that's what matters. If you want to delve more into the details, you'll get some of it from their website, but today's wireless story in the Globe & Mail is a better place to get yourself up to speed.

For a variety of other reasons, I've also been skeptical that the Canadian market can support another national provider. We used to have four players, and now we're down to three. The costs of entry, of course are huge, and it's hard to see how anyone can hang in long enough to recoup their investment for spectrum and network buildout. Sure, wireless penetration is on the low side here compared to other developed country, and margins remain high. However, by the time new players come to market - which could be as long as two years - we'll pretty much all be mobile users, so the new business is going to have to come at someone else's expense.

So, why on earth would anybody want to do this? As the title of this post says --- it's the network, stupid. Here's what I think. I really can't see how anybody can make money long term up here being a new entry by just providing service in the mobile space. There just aren't enough subscribers to go around. However...

There are a few factors that make Globalive's situation unique, and may give them enough of an edge that will make this viable. Consider the following:

- They're building a network from scratch, and yes, this will be very costly. However, they'll be building it for today's market, which is all about video and data - not voice. It's a bit like fiber vs. DSL. Presumably, Globalive will be building a network around the applications that make money and sell smartphones. As good as the existing wireless networks are in Canada, they were not built this way, and will likely have to do some upgrading to keep pace once Globalive comes to market. The way I see it, whenever they are ready, Globalive should have the most advanced network, which should give them a nice window to capture their first round of subscribers.

- Globalive's backers have a LOT of experience with large scale mobile operations on an international scale. That means they have experience with spectrum auctions and they must have leverage with vendors that Canadian operators probably don't have - such as Alcatel-Lucent. In other words, they will likely be able to build their network cheaper than other new entrants, which will mean a faster payback on their investment. Because they have so much global expertise, they may very well be able to partner with major vendors and get financing or preferable terms. In other words, they may not have to lay out so much money, which would put them in a very good position to enter the market. Oh - and by extension, the same goes for handset vendors, which means they should be very competitive against the other operators in terms of both device selection and pricing.

- Globalive already has an established telecom operator in its stable - Yak. So there is some brand presence already, and ramping this up into a mobile carrier would really be a matter of scale.

- They also have several other telecom companies in their stable, so there's a built-in pool from which to draw for both talent and developers. Because they'll be coming to market with a state of the art network, Globalive will have a clean slate to truly become a 2.0 type of provider. This is not really a made-in-Canada business model, and Globalive brings an international mindset which I think will give them an edge for bringing innovative services to market. I'd be very surprised to see them simply copying what the incumbents are offering.

- Last but not least, as I say in the title of this post - it's the network, stupid. I'm thinking differently now about Globalive, and believe it's the network that's going to make them successful - not the services. We all know why the Vonages of the world are doomed - it's almost impossible to make a go when you don't have the network. Aside from all the advantages discussed already, another factor in Globalive's favor is that networks are cheaper to build today than in the cellular world. This is still the biggest barrier to entry, but it's not as high as it used to be, and Globalive has deep pockets. Once you get past that hurdle, you will be on an equal playing field with the incumbents. At that point, all bets are off as far as I'm concerned. Sure, the incumbents will have the subscribers and established brands, but the pressure will really be on them to defend their territory. Globalive won't be coming to market to compete on price - they'll be doing it with cool services that make smartphones worth every penny. If they hit the market with really innovative services, I think they'll give the incumbents a good run for their money. Looking at it this way, it really is about the network. Once that big barrier falls away, we'll see how well the incumbents will be able to compete with some real competition. In my mind, it's a bit like calling your bluff. If Globalive comes to market with the best network around, things could get very interesting.

- Oh - here's another reason why I think the network is the key to making Globalive a potential winner. I'm pretty sure they will end up being the only real rival to the 3 incumbents in terms of market coverage. They may choose to stay out of Quebec, or simply partner with someone like Videotron there, which would give them Canada-wide service. Either way, Globalive will be a natural magnet for regional carriers looking to expand coverage or MVNOs seeking to capture some niche markets.It's hard imagine anyone else having the means or motivation to build yet another national network once all the licenses are spoken for. MVNOs have had a hard time succeeding anywhere, but hey - if Globalive has a really great network, they will be able to support a much more interesting range of services than what MVNOs are offering today. So, if they were thinking along these lines, they will overengineer their network to provide enough capacity to accommodate over the top providers. This will generate more revenues, with hardly any additional expense, which in turn will accelerate their ROI. Nothing wrong with that.

I still have a lot of reservations about how successful any new entries will be to our wireless market. Now that I look at where Globalive stands today, I'm a lot more optimistic about their chances. The odds are still long, but Globalive brings a lot to the table, and I really don't see how anybody else comes close.

The big question now becomes how will the incumbents respond? If they still feel this will remain a cozy club of three and stand pat, I think they will be in trouble if my view of Globalive is on target. What if they don't upgrade their networks? What if they don't innovate with new services and just try to compete on price? Just look at the way Rogers is coming to market with the iPhone. No way this tactic is going to work once Globalive comes to town, especially if they're GSM.

Pretty interesting scenarios to say the least. Y'know, this Globalive thing might just work. Thoughts???

Technorati tags: Globalive, Jon Arnold, AWS auction, Canadian wireless

Sangoma Acquires Paraxip - More Canadian Consolidation

The Canadian tech/telecom vendor space has been busy of late. Last week, Ottawa-based IPTV middleware vendor Espial announced its acquisition of Kasenna.

Yesterday, Toronto-based Sangoma Technologies acquired Montreal-based Paraxip Technologies. Like Espial, it's a small deal between small companies - $4.8 million - but another nice example of low level industry consolidation.

I'm familiar with both companies, and have done work with Sangoma as a client. Sangoma has actually been around over 20 years, which is pretty rare for Canadian tech companies. So, they're far from being a startup, but are still pretty small - but they are publicly traded.

Sangoma is well regarded in the Open Source community as a leading provider of PCI cards for VoIP solutions. They compete head-on with Digium, and have many fans in their corner who feel they have a superior product. Paraxip is more of a software vendor that enables telephony connectivity for computers, and have a strong focus on contact centers, including integration with both Genesys and Microsoft Speech Server.

Overall, it looks like a good fit with both hardware and software elements in a single offering. The companies announced their own product integration last year, so they've already figured out how to work together.

It's not a huge deal, but I think it's a good deal, especially by making two Canadian companies stronger as one. It strengthens Sangoma's position by making them more of a complete solution provider for Open Source VoIP and the contact center market. As Open Source gains momentum for Unified Communications solutions, things could get interesting, as this deal gives Sangoma more capability to be positioned in this space, which would take them up a notch or two in the food chain.

Not much downside here, really, and I'm glad to see Sangoma making a move to become bigger, stronger and better.

Technorati tags: Sangoma, Jon Arnold, Paraxip

June Media Roundup

Not sure why I didn't do this sooner, but I've been wanting to post a monthly roundup of my recent media citings. A number of people keep mentioning articles where they see me cited, and sometimes I'm not even aware of them.

I try my best to post media citings in the right column of this blog page, but also thought it might be helpful to summarize recent citings in one post. June was a particularly busy month for being quoted in the tech/telecom media, as I was included in stories in both the U.S. and Canada, along with a TV appearance.



Business Week - "Home Phone Service for $10 a Month?"

BNN TV - RIM's Earnings/Outlook for Smartphones

ITBusiness.ca - "Cisco's Former Number Two Becomes Avaya's Number One"

ComputerWeekly.com - "VoIP Supplier Guide Essentials"

Macworld - "Wireless Broadband to Drive iPhone 3G Sales"

U.S. News & World Report - "Look Out, Vonage. Here Comes magicJack"


Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates

Rogers Backlash on iPhone Pricing

Well, in the wake of Canada Day, you'd think we'd be feeling all good about ourselves. Perfect time to get excited about the iPhone, which has finally come to Canada - legally, that is.

What a golden opportunity for Rogers to bring the gift that keeps giving and endear themselves to the wireless digerati.

We sure have a strange market up here for wireless, not to mention a wildly successful wireless spectrum auction that has been brought in some $4 billion for the government. Can't get enough of a good thing, I guess.

Because Rogers holds so many trump cards, they've chosen to come to market with some pretty expensive and restrictive pricing plans, and the pushback from consumers is really starting to kick in. I'm not going to get into the details, but their pricing plans are in stark contrast to the U.S., and I don't think there has ever been an instance that so baldly shows how different our market is here, and how much more people have to spend to get wireless services.

By nature, we're a polite people and don't complain too much or too loudly. That's why I'm posting about this, especially for those of you not that familiar with the Canadian telecom market. Let's just say that a lot of consumers are speaking out, and in true Web 2.0 fashion are self-organizing, and using all the tools. It's a great example of Internet democracy in action, and it will be interesting to watch how Rogers reacts.

I haven't blogged about this yet, but you can get my take in one of the articles that just ran this morning.

There's lots more out there of course, and I'll steer you next to a feature piece that ran in today's Globe & Mail. It covers the ground pretty well, but what I love the most about online versions of newspaper articles is the commentary from readers. As of this moment, there are 135 comments, and it's a great way to take the pulse of Canadians. Most of them are slamming Rogers, but there are also pro-Rogers voices, explaining that it's a free market, and they have every right to maximize their revenues and profits. After all, they took the risk, so they should gain the rewards. I suppose, but there's not a lot of risk here really, right?

On the blogger front, I'd also urge you to review Kevin Restivo's recent posts - he's been following this pretty closely.

Of particular interest on his latest post is a link to a online petition that has been getting lots of grass roots support. The Web works in strange ways, folks, and his link takes you to a URL that is too obscene to mention here, and you get the "Forbidden" 403 code, so you won't have any luck finding it. I think Kevin's intent was to steer to you to a different website, more appropriately titled "Ruinediphone.com". That makes more sense, but guess what - that URL also comes up "Forbidden" 403. Very interesting, huh? You'd think we were in China, where dissent is not often tolerated. I suspect this website is a bona fide place to rant and rally around a bone fide issue. Am I being blocked from this site because I happen to be a Rogers broadband subscriber? There's a scary thought, huh.

A sidebar thought that I can't figure out. If this website has been set up to organize Canadians against these pricing practices, why is it a .com URL, and not a .ca URL? Is it just me?

To continue this journey, it's always good to pick up on what Mark Evans has to say, and Jim Courtney's take on Skype Journal.

Bottom line - Rogers is behaving as one would expect an oligopoly to behave, and in response, it will mobilize our desire to see a more competitive market. The consumer will ultimately decide and will show Rogers just how much they really want the iPhone. Rogers may take the hint and follow Apple's footsteps by lowering prices, or they may hold their ground and exploit this window where they're the only game in town.

Based on a sample of one, my oldest son Max has gone back to using an iPhone, but I can't print here what he thinks of what Rogers is doing. Let's just say a lot of Canadians are seeing red right now, and I'm not talking about our flag or the Rogers logo.


Technorati tags: Rogers Wireless, Jon Arnold, iPhone, Canada

Espial Acquires Kasenna

Here's a noteworthy item that came out on Canada Day. In short, one IPTV middleware company has acquired another IPTV middleware company. It's not a huge story or a huge deal, but still of interest to anyone following this space.

The players involved are Ottawa-based Espial Group and California-based Kassena. It's a very small deal dollar-wise - not even $10 million - but there are a few aspects worth commenting on.

First, it's a Canadian story. I've followed Espial for quite some time, and they went public up here on the TSX a little over a year ago.

Second, you don't often see Canadian companies acquiring U.S. companies in the IP world. Mitel's acquisition of Inter-Tel last year was another example, but on a much larger scale. Aside from not often seeing these kinds of deals, you may well not have heard about it either. In addition to this being a really small deal, the timing is a bit odd. Falling on Canada Day, it didn't really get picked up until today. And coming into the July 4 break, it may not register much in the U.S. this week either. Is it possible the timing was intentional so as not to attract much attention? I'm not close enough to either company to speculate, but I welcome your thoughts.

More importantly, the story is worth noting as a sign of low-level consolidation in the IPTV market, which is taking longer to hit its stride than most of us have expected. This is a natural stage for any emerging sector, and together these companies should be stronger. It's always tough to gauge synergies among like companies, especially when they are of comparable size.

The real problem here is that the IPTV space - especially middleware - remains fragmented, with no dominant player. Well, they're all competing against Microsoft - that's a given - but otherwise, they're all pretty small. As a result, the longer the market takes to mature, the harder it is for the indies to hang in for the payoff. At this stage of the game, revenues are hard to come by, and options for toughing it out another quarter or two are limited. That would explain why the size of this deal is so small. Better to take a small buy-out now than risk getting nothing later on.

I've always liked Espial, and hope this deal takes them to another level. If it does, I'm sure we'll see other roll-ups as the other middleware vendors look for ways to keep pace. I doubt this will be a game-changer for Microsoft, but it sure gives Espial more runway now to ramp up and try to emerge as a leader among the indies.

All I can do here is draw some home-grown attention to the news and hope they can make this work. Go Canada!


Technorati tags: Espial, Jon Arnold, Kasenna, IPTV

Jazinga Squawk Box Podcast

The other day, I posted about the Squawk Box I was hosting this week in Alec's absence.

My guest was Shidan Gouran, CTO and co-founder of Toronto-based Jazinga. They're a promising startup with an easy-to-use, premises based SMB IP telephony solution. For small businesses looking for PBX-caliber telephony, and an alternative to a hosted offering, Jazinga is what they should be looking at.

We had a strong turnout for yesterday's segment - 22 participants - and lots of good questions and discussion about Jazinga and what they're bringing to market.

Iotum has been running these segments for some time as a Facebook application, and along the way, they've learned enough about doing these to develop their own branded conferencing solution. It's called Calliflower, and was just launched with great fanfare on Tuesday. Our Squawk Box segment yesterday was the second one done using Calliflower, and we had a few glitches, but everything worked out fine in the end. One of these prevented me - as the moderator - from being able to record the session. Carl Ford, who was on the call, came to the rescue and recorded things from his end - so a big thank you to Mr. Ford for saving the day.

So, with a bit of editing, our concall is now ready for listening. Alec got it posted to his blog late last night, and you can get the link here. It runs about 40 minutes, and even if you're just mildly interested in SMB VoIP, it's time well spent.


Technorati tags: Jazinga, Jon Arnold, Iotum, Alec Saunders, Calliflower, SMB VoIP