DemoCamp17.Toronto.Canada
Ignite Presentation, ThomasPurves.com
Led by: Thomas Purves WirelessNorth.ca

Why I’m here. An Infamous Chart.
Posted April 2007
Touched a nerve
Tens of thousands of visitors
150 Blog comments
100s of links
Hundreds more comments
on Digg and other sites
Front page of Digg
Somewhat remarkable for a
post related to Canadian
Telecom regulatory policy.

Why Wireless Matters
Innovation – Wireless IS the new last mile
 All computing is moving to the cloud, the web
 The network is the computer (finally)
 BUT this future of computing relies ubiquitous
connectivity
 Prevalent, ubiquitous, affordable wired and
wireless connectivity
 Culture and Economic growth (what sectors
do not now depend on computers and
connectivity)

Canadian Landscape
 Some of worst data rates in the developed
world.
 A country of Blackberry addicts, but low
accessibility to most advanced devices.
 Dominated by on-deck content and services,
crap accessibility to open content, open services.
 High pricing to consumers, lagging wireless
penetration, lagging adoption behaviours

Devices are overpriced in Canada

Contract lengths are obscene
 Canada is the only country with 3 year
contracts
 6, 12, 18, 24 month contracts standard
everywhere else

New Devices are transforming
Wireless Except in Canada

Why does Canada suck?
 Only one GSM carrier
 Little competitive behaviour
 Small market w/ no foreign ownership
 Curse of blackberry
 CRTC + industry Canada asleep at switch
 On the bright side it could be worse: Cuba,
North Korea for example have far less access
than we have

Victims of our own crackberry
addiction
 Canadian success story
 Poor browser
 Is really good at email
 Email is so 1999
 Appeals to a lucrative niche w/ moderate
data needs but high willingness to pay

Since the Chart, has it gotten any
better?
 YES Telus Unlimited PC card data access $75/month
 YES Bell / Telus unlimited “on device” browsing. At
least on Some devices, other restrictions
 NO Roger’s unlimited plans shuts off the internet to
third party apps. Rogers data rates have gone UP
from 30$ / MB to
$50 / MB (WTF!)

How much is $50/MB (WTF!) ?
 Cost to fill equivalent of a 1.44MB floppy drive
circa 1992? $72 + GST/PST
 Cost to fill equivalent of a $30 2GB MicroSD
card? $102,400 + GST/PST
 Cost to listen to a single mp3 (5MB) streaming?
$250 + GST/PST
 Data cost per hour at theoretical HSPA speed?
(3.7Mbs)? $1260 / Hour + GST/PST

The last time in the history of computing
anything cost $50/MB

What can we do about it?
New spectrum Auctions has created opportunities for
• New wireless policies
• New wireless entrants
• New / Disruptive Business models
Cost to play
• About 1.5 to 2 Billion CAD
• Expensive, risky

What is Canada’s Future?

Future of wireless - Optimism
“The rosy future: new entrants kick ass, telus
goes gsm too, iphones come to canada, cheap
highly capable and android and other devices
from china flood into Canada, spectrum auction
1. Optimistic pt1
comes with just the right rules/incentives to
open up the mobile platform to widespread
innovation, Rim comes out with a great
browser. Canada leapfrogs UK / US on the way
to 4G...

Future of wireless - Optimism
...by 2015 canada is exporting its model to
other countries as a world leader in services,
network operation, and hand set manufacture.
A company that goes on to become the next
1. Optimistic pt2
great facebook/google/microsoft is founded in
a dorm room in 2010 in canada is now fertile
ground for experiments in uber-connectivity”

Future of wireless – Not Optimism
“THE GLOOM FUTURE: the auction fails. new
entrants tied up in litigation over tower
sharing never achieving rollout, spectrum goes
fallow, a series of dithering governments
2.
forestalls the 700mhz auction,pt1 on any
Pessimistic
fails
other effective measure of stimulate
competition or openness and access...

Future of wireless – Not Optimism
... bell telus rogers use their complete domination
of the pipes to lock down media distribution in
canada on wired and wireless pipes though
descriminatory pricing and all hope of net
neutrality dies in canada. At birth all canadians are
2. Pessimistic pt2
allocated 10mb of outside internet access. Canadas
productivity gap with the US widens, eventually
Castro dies and north and south korea reunite and
both these countries have greater freedom of
access to the internet than canadians.”

What to Do about it
 Be aware of what you are missing
 Don’t sign up for a 3 year data plan
 Talk or write to your MP (it works)
 Buy an unlocked phone
 Support the new entrants (if they are better)
 Build kick-ass mobile apps anyway, and sell to
the global market
 Stay in touch: WirelessNorth.ca