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What the hell is a “point”? it corresponds to a specific licence. Each geographic area of each segment of spectrum is assigned a number of points. You have to put up a deposit proportionate to the number of points-worth of spectrum you want to be allowed to bid on. The deposit is like a credible commitment to the government that you have the cash to pay if you win and to ensure you have cash left over to build on that spectrum once you get it. It’s not quite linear, those bidding on fewer points have to put up (slightly) less dollars per point.

Note a few of these bidders might be bidding on a few snippets of (mostly less interesting but maybe not to everybody) non-3G spectrum also up for grabs in this auction. Stuck in there just to confuse things.

breaks down the point and deposit values for the 3 chunks of set asside spectrum.

20MHz of licences covering coast to requires about 1240 points. Getting 10MHz covering all the Yukon is 2pts. The greater Toronto area, 120 points for 10MHz. 100MHz of 3G spectrum is up for grabs in total. (spectrum map)

Little known fact, I was nearly on this list.

Telcos: You geeks are dreamers, get real

Geeks: Dammit you Telcos are dinosaurs! um… please why won’t you buy this fiery meteorite I’ve invented?

If you don’t have one already, WirelessNorth.ca is giving away a free ticket to ICE 08 the “Interactive Content Exchange” march 26 – 28, 2008 Toronto Canada. This conference is looking pretty good. Regular price is $599. Of course there’s catch, or as we prefer to look at it, two opportunities in one. WirelessNorth.ca has an extra ICE ticket (thanks to DemoCamp17) but a shortage of hands to help blog the conference. So we’re looking for one person, who will cover ICE for WirelessNorth, 2-4 posts over the course of the two days on what you think are the best (or worst) stories of ICE and what it all means for you, the future, or the great WirelessNorth.ca

So, save yourself $600, get into the conferece, and get published on WirelessNorth.ca, drop a line to (editor at WirelessNorth.ca). If there’s a multitude of volunteers, the winer will be selected by some selective and subjective process we haven’t entirely thought of yet. Possibly related to how quickly you send in an email.

As a blogger, there’s one other official way to win a free ticket, ICE is sponsoring a contest to give away a pair of tickets to bloggers who write the best post somehow related to one or more of: “Innovation. Creativity. Enterprise. ” Details. Heads up though, the deadline is tommorow. The tag you want to use is “ICE08″.

And then there were 3. Quebecor is the third major player to announce, officially, their participation in Canada’s spectrum auction. The shocker is that they too have set down enough funds to bid on all licences nationally. Quebecor has announced today probably in response to MTS and Yak jumping the gun back on Monday and one day before Industry Canada announces the full official list tomorrow. We could get more.

How the process works is that each spectrum applicant needs to place a deposit to qualify to bid on each geographic piece of spectrum and region of canada. The deposit effectively represents a minimum openening bid on each of these licences.

The game is on for national spectrum. In reality we don’t expect each of the entrants to bid aggresively on every licence, but placing a deposit to cover the whole thing does maximise options. I’m sure the game theory wheels are spinning furiously for both new and old entrants. In reality there is enough new spectrum for, at a stretch, 3 new national carriers, but taking more of the spectrum and sharing less is always best for the business model if the competing bidders can be scared off and you can get it for the right price.

Wider spectrum means you can serve more voice and data to more customers with fewer towers, less roaming and less competition. What’s more the extent to which spectrum can be concentrated or monopolized can bring high economic returns for carriers relative to a more open competitive market. This explains in part why a big chunk of spectrum was “set aside” in this auction as new entrants might never have had a shot at it otherwise, and the land rush (air rush?) to take advantage of it. Said Quebecor’s CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau today:

“However, exceptionally favourable conditions for new entrants, which may never occur again, persuaded us it is in the interest of our shareholders that we try to extend our deployment across Canada. We will see at the conclusion of the auction if such a deployment is possible.”

Previously: Everything you needed to know about the Canadian Spectrum Auction but were afraid to ask

What is the android? Android is the antidote to the iPhone. It takes what iPhone did, Apple’s windows 95 moment and blows it wide open. The last time we had a unifying platform like this was micosoft windows and i think apple would be even worse to have than Microsoft. What’s great about Android [And he can’t talk about names] but theres people who should have no business in the mobile space [like startups, CE and CPG companies one presumes] creating things that are going to go right at the likes of Motorola and Samsung and everybody else.

- Mark Rolston, Frog Design at eComm08

And it’s a pretty simple one. Vringo does things like video ringtones and kitchy personalization bits for phones. A good enough business one might imagine. But Andrew Perlman, from Vringo was talking up something today IMHO much cooler today. A Facebook app that syncs all your contacts on facebook with all your contacts on your mobile, keeps it up to date, and shows your friends current profile picture when they call. Awesome. Sign me up. Maybe the first actually useful facebook app ever? And it’s mobile.

Another interesting tidbit from his talk? their monetization strategy is ad-supported and freemium. We live in a temporary stage where there is a scarcity of supply for mobile ads, CPMs as high as $80 on mobile. The moment they announced their product, even pre-users the phone was ringing from mobile media buyers. Presumably this is a UK story. A little ahead of Canada they are.

Update: Oops I lied, the app, or rather facebook, won’t let you export personal information of your contacts from facebook. What the Vringo app does is let you match up your existing mobile contacts with your contacts on facebook to sync elements like the profile photo.

Live from Ecomm08 MountainView. Three speakers in a row this morning at eComm2008 are hammering on the point of network accessibility and neutrality in the US (yes it’s an issue here too). First up was Jonathan Christensen from Skype who gave us a history of the company, including some admissions (we got a little distracted after the eBay purchase but new things and great new developments are on the way he claims).

Some notes:

- 2003, it wasn’t rocket science but Skype was the first to close the loop in voip, solve the NAT problem, just worked, unlike other IM voice services which would be foiled 20-30% of all calls by home routers or firewalls.
- Now skype is everywhere 250M+ users and on may devices, mentions Nokia N800, PSP
- In the future sees smart applications driving the network, not coming from the core netork providers (a common refrain).
- But mobility is the last anchor to the old way, spectrum scarcity make it perfect walled garden. The good old way again, phone numbers tied geography, contracts, locked devices – yuck
- Finally(?) though the internet goes mobile, 700 mhz aucion (in the U.S. not yet canada), open platform conditions apply, new games begin. Still need to be vigilant about net neutrality, but maybe this is a great hope.
- Next 10 years: multi-modal communications, real time hd video, data, presence,, text, wideband audio, fixed mobile convergence for real, mashups, freedom with mobility

- Final point: what the future holds and needs is Natural segmentation competencies
1) infrastructure players focus on what they do best (pipes)
2) application innovation comes from outside

Next up Michael Shiloh from Open Moko

- Open Moko is an open hardware platform for mobile
- General purpose device with completely open specs, open source OS, drivers and application layer
- Even the form factor is open, plastic casing is released as open CAD files
- No devices are ever locked, everything can be rewritten
- Great also for special purpose devices, like adapted designs of in-dash connected GPS/car mobile computers, or other special purpose apps
- Of course, requires a degree of open networks for these devices to be useful
- The missing question that I didn’t get the answer too was, how does the company help/work with 3rd parties with design, manufacture or distribute open moko based hardware?

3rd up, David Isenberg a man after WirelessNorth’s heart: a legendary Telco troublemaker

- 10 years ago wrote the highly influential “the rise of the stupid network” (are we still waiting for this?)
- He brings up Martin to the stage. A Brit. Martin has the old iso stack printed on his tshit: physical layer, network layer etc. then topped with application layer, finance, political layer — you are here!
- At home, Edward has 30 isps to choose from, 24mb dsl is about 35USD a month.
- David: most of us live in duopoly or monopoly world. The reason for that is political. Politics determines what our internet looked.
Structural separation.
- David: We need pipes separate from the apps.
- David is organizing a confernce in Washington DC “Freedom to Connect” March 31st. This is a fantastic idea we should copy in Ottawa btw.
- David’s key point is this: Net Neutrality is essential – but the devil is in the details. There needs to be exceptions for network management, but for 60 years (the days of radio even) the big players have playing the network management card to lock out competition
- What we need to do is consider, instead of absolute network nuetrality is structural separation.

Think about how relevant this is when the biggest network players are also vertically integrated with media companies. How much incentive is there to roll out the capacity to serve other people’s content channels and services (whether it be anything from voice on skype to tv over IP).

Favourite conversational quote of the morning: “What? Canada has worse networks than the U.S.? We thought you guys were always supposed to be way more progressive than us.”

Speaking of learning and hacking with iPhone and Android SDKs, head over to Montreal Techwatch if you are meeting up with other mobile developers to share and kick around ideas. Sounds awesome. The date Wednesday the 19th has been suggested, in downtown Montreal.

The event will go ahead if there are more than 4-5 people interested. Somehow, I don’t think that will be a problem.

Definitely thinking that WirelessNorth.ca should organize something like this in Toronto (and elsewhere) as well. Stay tuned, and subscribe to this blog for future announcements….

Update: Looks like the final date is set for Friday, 21 March at “Station C” in Montreal more details.

Breaking news in Canada’s spectrum auction – MTS Allstream and Yak Communications Corp have both come public with their participation. David George-Cosh has the story for the Post. What’s most interesting so far is that MTS has put down the full $340M – enough money to bid on the whole enchilada, 40MHz of set-aside spectrum from coast to coast. In reality though, they’re unlucky if they get the whole thing, but putting down this deposit maximizes their strategic options. There’s also Yak to consider, owned by Globalive Communications Corp. and we’ll find out more about them shortly.

Meanwhile we know Quebecor is deadly serious about their bid, they’re hiring and talking like they’ve won it already. In the province of Quebec they should be almost unbeatable, but watch for them to bid on territories outside as well. Data rates are just the beginning of what’s wrong with mobile in Canada they tell me, just wait til someone offers a truly “open” network in Canada.

What does that mean? And how much disruption can we really expect? The sentiment I’m hearing from those close to the bidding (on both sides of the street) are the same, it’s an exciting as hell time to be working in telcom but – anxious as well. Come June, it’s either a big bonus or time to look for a new job…

Why is the news coming out today? Because today is the deadline to submit applications to Industry Canada. IC won’t announce the list of applicants officially until Friday, and the list of approved bidders two weeks after that. But as far as the game theory is concerned, a extra week wont change anything so it makes sense to start pounding the PR drum.

This is shaping up to be the year for wireless in Canada. Stay tuned to this channel for more this week.

Previously: Everything you needed to know about the Canadian Spectrum Auction but were afraid to ask

Heri asks: “if you had to choose between developing for the iPhone or choosing android, which one would you pick?”

The choice is easy for now, there’s lots of iPhones out there, not so many androids. Build iPhone apps. Get your app out there, learn and iterate. Build an Android version when there actually androids out there to run it.

Android could be big news, I breathlessly await a flood of cheap highly capable off-brand Chinese or Taiwan made Androids to come rolling in across the pacific. (who would need to buy a subsidized phone and 3year contract anymore?) But even in the optimistic scenario, I see Android as a 2009 story at the earliest. Not till then will we a significant number in the field, and not till then will we really know what the killer features and form-factors will end up being or if Android is a hit at all.

I don’t think the form factor you see in the emulator will be it. It’s a bit fugly.

If you are a developer, I’d say learn the iPhone first. You’ll find more work, and more immediately rewarding work, in the near term building for the platform with the larger installed base.

Anyone care to disagree?