Wirelessnorth.ca

For several rounds yesterday the spectrum auction was down to one single new bid. We were almost there. Then it appeared someones (I blame Rogers) had had the cunning plan all along of patiently waiting it out until the other bidders had spent and carefully allocated every last dime of all the spectrum money they could finance – before swooping in and trying to steal off a bunch of obscure market licences when they though no one was looking. Rogers even withdrew some bids on the [cheap and considered sortof useless] G band which (maybe?) they were just hanging onto just for the eligibility points to cause this sort of trouble later.

And so, the battle for Cornwall began. Which then spread to Coburg, Brockville, then Peterborough and before you knew even Moosejaw were in play again.

From mere tens of thousands of incremental bidding per round we’re back up to half a dozen bids every round and 550,000CAD of new money just last round (251). Watch for all hell to break loose if the contagion spreads to the long-settled slices over Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.

Have you ever watched a box of kittens try to take a nap? They’ll be almost all out then the last one to settle down will catastrophically flick just the tip of his tail, a second kitten -awake in an instant to the irresistible to motion- pounces on the first, then a third kitten is all over the second one.. and in a second there’s tiny cats flying everywhere.

In other news, the auction teams won’t be getting out of their war rooms to the cottage early this weekend afterall.

Well, that’s not entirely true, Industry Canada graciously shortened the schedule to 5:25pm from 5:30 this afternoon.

Total auction revenues have now exceeded 4.2Billion.

While the lineup for the new 3G iPhone started as early as July 4th in some American cities, things are just getting started here in Canada. It is about 8:30pm the night before the phones are made available and there lineup consists of about 8 guys.

I am guessing that the line will grow somewhat tonight… At least I think it will. Nobody in line seems to be as prepared as the average overnight line waiter normally is. Only a couple of fold-out lawnchairs, no blankets, no pillows or boxes of cheap wine.

Seems a little odd doesn’t it? Like Rogers paid them a paltry 8$ an hour to help kickstart the lineup and they never were planning to actually stay all night? I didn’t tell you that.

What about you? Going to go hang out and await the second coming?

Apple insider [link: Spat with Rogers leaves Canadian Apple stores without iPhones] has lent some credence to the rumours zinging around the internet everywhere yesterday about Apple censuring Rogers over their iPhone plans. The whole thing sounds rather odd.

Did Apple not know about the Rogers contracts before they were announced? Was it actually news that Canada has the longest contracts and some of the highest mobile pricing in the developed world (developing world, other worlds, the mars rover probably has a better data and minutes plan than you do etc.)? With an exclusive on the phone and new competition on horizon, are we really surprised that Rogers is trying to milk the opportunity to the maximum.

There is a possibility that Apple was taken aback by the unexpectedly harsh publicity. From a lofty distance it is easy to underestimate the passionate pent up frustrations of long-beleaguered Canadian mobile consumers. It surprises us all the time.

Do you think the petition really worked? On the other hand, we feel like there is something else going on here. Apple has never really been known for championing “low pricing for the everyman”. Apple has always expected you to pay a premium to enjoy the privilege of using their goods.

The simpler explanation would be that production of the new device has yet to ramp up and that shortages may be expected globally while Apple’s contract manufacturers struggle to keep up with the initial flush of demand. Do you believe this is really a spat between Apple and Rogers? Let us know in the comments.

Remember Canada’s Spectrum Auction? Well, it’s still not over yet. While nearly 300 individual licenses totaling nearly 4.2 Billion dollars have been settled, a few bidders are still fussing over a tiny number of remaining licenses. The last few days have seen only 3-5 licenses changing hands for increment tens of thousands of dollars or 0.002% of the total. Round 212 action (only 5 new bids):

Licence	Service Area 			Previous High Bidder	Current High Bidder
302d 	10 MHz-Prince Edward Island 	Globalive Wireless 	SaskTel
304d 	10 MHz-Cape Breton 	 	Globalive Wireless 	SaskTel
356d 	10 MHz-Thompson/Cariboo 	Rich Telecom Corp. 	1380057 Alberta Ltd.
316e 	10 MHz-Pembroke 	 	Globalive Wireless 	Bell Mobility Inc.
331e 	10 MHz-Chatham 	 		Canquest 	 	Bell Mobility Inc.

Come on kids, lets wrap this up so all can get to finally delivering wonderful new services on these ready and waiting airwaves. And don’t ask us why SaskTel suddenly has a hankering for Anne of Green Gables. Maybe there’s a potato connection?

To try and accelerate the close of the auction, Industry Canada has added an 11th round of bidding to schedule for the remainder of this week.

Bell and Rogers haven’t quite given up on Wimax yet. Bell is serious enough about marketing cottage-country wimax to the extent of graffitoing local sailboats.

For a first hand account, Martin has a recent post on his blog on his experience with Rogers cottage wimax. Rogers and Bell use the exact same boxes (and towers too most likely).

This was fun to see

Think about it, it will only cost you $100 a month, perhaps a bit more.

Real web browsing, fancy and flashy piece of hardware, decent TXT plan, a little upgrade for Caller ID, and VoiceMail is baked in and finger-mashable.

Let’s be honest here. Most of you are not like me. I am a cheap tight-wad who would never spend $100 a month on his cellphone bill. My guess is that you aren’t like that though. Most of you are already spending $100 and you just smile when Ted Rogers pulls up in the Brinks truck to pick up your payment.

I’ll be honest with you: Despite all the talk, I think that most people are full of shit. They’ll all be there, July 11th, credit card in hand, pen ready to sign on the dotted line.

I have had an iPhone since September 2007. I was pretty excited about it at first. It was brand new, I was one of the first people I knew to have one, especially in Canada, and man,. that screen is just so crisp.

I can, however, promise you that despite what I thought, the iPhone does not really change your life in any significant way. Sure, I would take one if Rogers were to put it on my desk tomorrow, I might even get excited about it all over again, but it still wouldn’t change much.

The thing I LOVE about the iPhone is the built in iPod. I listen to a lot more music while I am out of the house now because of it, and I really enjoy that. Most phone have MP3 playing abilities, but none compares to the iPhone/iPod combination.

At some point, the decision about the iPhone isn’t one about whether Rogers wants to charge you 30$ more a month, or whether 400mb really is enough or not. The truth is, this is a decision you made a long time ago, and hate Rogers or not, your decision really isn’t about them, it is about you.

So be honest with yourself. Isn’t this something you want? You know you can afford it. Just end the emotional roller coaster now and admit it.

Or not.

For a lot of you, I think you are exhausted. This has been a bit of an odd consumerist roller coaster and we’ll all be happier when it is over. With only a few minor changes to the plans and pricing, Rogers could have created legions of iPhone worshiping fanboys. The sort of legion of GSM loving, iPhone addicted customer who would unashamedly have preached the virtues of the iPhone and Rogers pricing to their friends and family.

Rogers, whose stock has fallen along with some pretty heavy trading volumes since the announcement of the iPhone plan pricing, has demonstrated how dedicated they are to eschewing American-style pricing and volume-based revenue growth. This will put them at high risk during any significant economic downturn which hits their core ARPU-raising demographic.

If 30,000 customers stay away from the iPhone like they say they will, then this is going to be a huge lost opportunity for Rogers to diversify their data-buying market segment. If, on the other hand, the iPhone is a wild success in Canada, then Rogers will have the proof and the reasoning they need to continue to drive data pricing based on scarcity.

With Bell making one of the most pathetic counter-iPhone efforts imaginable (it is like a bad joke. I mean, seriously, are they all drunk?) I think Rogers has more than enough time to figure this out. Nobody is going to rock the boat. Nobody.

Bell has decided that they would like to dip in to your pockets a little further, and now that you are hooked on TXT messaging, why not start there?

From now on all TXTs received on your Bell phone will count against you. If you have no TXTing plan, you will pay 15cents/message, if you do have a plan, incoming messages will now count against your total. So if you have a plan that includes 100 TXT messages, and I send you 3, you are down to 97 messages.

If you send a TXT message from outside of the country, you are now on the hook for 60cents. Most US providers charge 20cents for the same service.

Bidding has slowed to trickle in Canada’s AWS spectrum auction with fewer than a dozen bids per round today. What you see here is close to the final picture on the bidding action. It’s clear that Rogers brought the largest wallet to the party, though Telus and Bell also have added to

The only question left for industry Canada is what to do with their 4.2B windfall. $4.2 is quite a bit of cash to find unexpectedly in one’s back pocket, and, more than twice the amount the auction was expected to go for. Funding a national wired and wireless broadband plan would sound to us like at least one good place to start.

Coming up on WirelessNorth.ca, more detail on the winners and losers of this auction by geography and spectrum band and what it means for the future of the wireless industry in Canada. Stay tuned…

#South African wireless regulators ban SIM locking and limit cell phone contracts to 18 months.

#South Korea extends WibroNetwork (wibro wikepedia) to 37MB by year end, promises “pricing cheaper than current data plans”. Wibro mobile broadband service now offering faster wireless broadband than Canadian cable/dsl home wired internet. Current wibro network in Korea offers a theoretical 18MBs, unlimited wireless data, equivalent to $22/CAD month.

#Australia unveils it’s national broadband plan which promises fibre to the node and, at minimum, 12MBps access to 98% of Australia’s population, with open access provisions. Typical home broadband connections average 3-6Mps in Canada when unthrottled with faster connections available in some areas at higher prices. Canada has no national broadband, net neutrality or open access plan. [WirelessNorth.ca recommends saveournet.ca for more on advocacy of a national plan in Canada.]