the webthinking blog

This is supposed to be a positive “wireless” post and I don’t think the message has been advertised well enough yet: Cogeco, yes – the cable Internet provider – has started to offer free wireless access to its existing customers! To my knowledge, it is the first “wired” provider to offer free Wi-Fi access to its customers base, in Canada. It is a great start, being available in the Oakville-Burlingon-Hamilton area for now. I use Cogeco as my secondary Internet provider, in Niagara Falls, so I can’t wait to take my MacBook to Starbucks, once they expand to the Niagara Region as well. This is the original email I was sent:

Enjoy High Speed Internet with new Cogeco Wi-Fi Hotspots.

Spring is a busy time of year. And when you’re always on the go, you’ll want to be able to easily access the Internet and your email account. Now you can with the new Cogeco wireless network. It offers a variety of Wi-Fi hotspots to Cogeco High Speed Internet customers throughout Burlington, Oakville and Hamilton. So you can still be online when you’re out and about.

Cogeco – c’mon, this it not a two-line story! You can do better to get the message out. Wireless freedom is back! :)

Kudos to marketing folks over at Telus Mobility! They totally get the search engine marketing. Have a look at the screen captures below:

They were taken right on March 14, the day wireless number portability (WNP) became effective in Canada. In other words, you could take you phone number and move over from Rogers to Telus, Rogers to Bell, Bell to Telus, yadda-yadda…

While Telus was coming out with their text ads, Richard Branson was escaping from a cage in Dundas Square, on the same day. He owns 50% of Virgin Mobile Canada, but the remaining 50% is owned by good, ol’Bell. Where was he rushing out of the cage?! As for Rogers or Bell, quiet… no celebration at all.

You can port your phone number, but most likely not your mobile device. Rogers is using the world-wide accepted GSM wireless standard, where as Bell and Telus operate on CDMA standard. Well, I use an unlocked quad-band BlackBerry. I wanted to make sure it works over in Europe, when traveling. Still love it!

I won’t make it a secret – I hate Rogers too. I’d switch to Telus in a NY minute, but I won’t be able to bring my own handset, I’d have to purchase a new CDMA device. More on Rogers: Nokia came out in early 2006 with a beautiful Wi-Fi phone – the E61. Guess what? It’s not available through Rogers, because they don’t want me sitting on the porch using my Wi-Fi connection, but use their GPRS service. Hands in my pocket, hands in my pocket… So they brought over a stripped-down version – the Nokia E62, with no Wi-Fi.

Let’s move over to the possibility of using Apple’s iPhone in Canada. Here’s what Rogers wrote in a communication email, on a very arrogant tone: “Other Canadian wireless carriers will not launch the iPhone”. I don’t see this being a good news for the consumer, as they will have to pay quite a bit for a data plan in order to see their email blinking on the iPhone.

Apple – I’d rather pay you the full price, for an unlocked iPhone, available in store or online, rather than have it subsidized by Rogers! I’m already used to pay a premium for your products – Mac or iPod – I can live with that, but not with the fact that Rogers is imposing limitations on your cool phone. Unless you make a cent out of each email I would send through the iPhone.

Long live the wireless portability! Not wait, it’s already dead!

Today I´ve experienced one of the most beautiful places I have visited in my whole life: Saona Island, Dominican Republic – a place with the whitest sand! Life has a different dimenssion here…

I totally believe that UBS Investment Research is right! Touch screen technology has been around for a while, tablet PCs are becoming more and more popular, self check-out terminals are spawning, Axiotron’s ModBook is using a stylus. Remember, Steve Jobs doesn’t like the stylus, so multi-touch technology can be just one step away from the iPhone to iPods or Macs. Is it more user friendly? We might need to redefine notions like “right-click”, “control-click”…

I never thought that even Google’s web servers generate log files that can be used in conjunction with their web analytics. Well, they are ready to anonymize some of the collected data such as IP addresses and cookies, after a period of …18-24 months. Nice move, Google!