Cellphones Wednesday-Night

Ottawa's wireless tax
As of 4:04 p. m. yesterday, Industry Canada's wireless spectrum auction had racked up total revenue of $4,196,804,287. That works out to about $210 for each cell phone user in Canada, a tax paid to Ottawa for, essentially, nothing. It also works out to less than the price of one of the eight-gigabite Apple iPhones that Rogers will begin selling across Canada on Friday. At least iPhone buyers will get something for their money.
Before iPhone fanatics scream at Rogers, why not take a run at the government of Canada for creating a spectrum regime that is set to pile more and more costs on consumers. The $210 average underplays the burden the wireless tax will impose on Canada's telecom system. The total auction proceeds of $4.2-billion are up-front sunk costs that will have to be recouped by wireless companies before they build even one new tower.

Thursday Jul 3, 2008 Canadian consumers getting soaked on iPhone
There are people - don't ask us how we know - who've been waiting for the iPhone to come to Canada as impatiently as kids at 4 a.m. on Christmas day. But it now appears that the best way to afford an iPhone will be to wait a bit longer.

Wednesday 02 July 2008 Getting pics off a camera phone
Wondering how to get your precious digital photos off of your cell phone? There are a number of different ways, depending on the phone you have...

Tuesday 01 July 2008 One answer: Don't buy the iPhone
The easiest way to protest against Rogers' pricing plan for Apple's iPhone is to hit the company in the pocketbook

MONTREAL: QUEBEC BANS DRIVERS FROM USING CELLPHONES
Quebec has become the latest province to forbid drivers the use of cellular telephones while driving, a three-month grace period expiring on Tuesday. Those found ignoring the law will be fined $115 and receive three demerit points. The law applies as well to any device, such as a BlackBerry, that can be used as a cellphone. Nova Scotia started enforcing a similar ban on April. Newfoundland and Labrador was the first province to pass such a law in 2003.

Monday Jun 30, 2008 What have 438 and 438 in common?
Some cell phone customers who identify themselves as "514 people" are having trouble getting used to...

Sunday 29 June 2008 MONTREAL: CELLPHONE AUCTION HITS $4.1 BILLION
Industry Canada reports that its auction for airwaves to expand cellular telephone use has reached $4.1 billion. The department is accepting offers for licences for use of 105 megahertz needed for cellular transmission. The three telecoms already in the cellphone market, Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and Bell Mobility Inc. lead in the bidding. The highest bidders among newcomers to the market are Quebecor Inc. and Globalive Wireless. Forty megahertz of spectrum is reserved for the latter category. The exercise is intended to bring consumers more choices and competitive prices.

Saturday Jun 28, 2008 Rogers unveils price plans for iPhone service in Canada
Rogers Wireless said yesterday the price of its basic voice-and-data combo for iPhones, which become..
Rogers Wireless said yesterday the price of its basic voice-and-data combo for iPhones, which become available in Canada on July 11, will start at $60 a month [3 year].
The $60 service provides 150 minutes of voice time with unlimited evenings and weekends, allowance for 75 outgoing text messages and, as with all plans, unlimited incoming text messages and voice mail. With this package, customers get 400 megabytes of data. Rogers said this amount will allow a person to transmit up to 200,000 text emails or 3,100 Web pages or 1,360 photo attachments.
Rogers said dataless plans for the iPhone, with just voice and basic text, will start at $15 a month.

Friday Jun 27, 2008 Weighing options for your phone?
The home land line is becoming ever more expendable as a growing number of people use their cellphones as their main talking...

Wednesday Jun 25, 2008 Seamless phone net? Not yet
Fixed-mobile convergence is the Holy Grail of modern telecom, getting all devices to work as a single network, know where...
Experts say that goal is still a long way away. Until you can use your BlackBerry, your laptop or home phone under a single number and get one bill at the end of the month regardless of carrier, much progress remains to be made.

Tuesday 24 June 2008 MONTREAL: CELLPHONE BIDDING REACHING $4 BILLION
Industry Canada reports that bidding for new wireless spectrum has reached almost $4 billion, with established players Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and Bell Mobility leading the way. Newcomer Quebecor Inc., which wants to break into the cellphone market, has bid $548 million for 16 licences. Forty per cent of the 105 megahertz band of spectrum is reserved for new entrants. The purpose of the auction is to increase competition in the cellphone industry.

Friday Jun 20, 2008 Hold the iPhone, gadget nuts
A document leaked yesterday that detailed the rate plans for Apple's iPhone in Canada brought joy to gadget-heads, but it... iPhone will cost $199 for the eight-gigabyte version and $299 for the larger 16-gigabyte model. As well, it noted that customers will have to agree to a three-year contract to buy it. [Bad deal]

Thursday 12 June 2008 14:52 Ten Reasons Why Jim Won't Buy the 3G iPhone
While millions of Mac minions were dancing in the streets on Monday over Apple’s unveiling of the iPhone 3G, ExtremeTech columnist and current iPhone owner Jim Lynch was busy stewing at home, wondering what all the fuss was about. He has no intention of buying a new iPhone. Why? Well, he has ten pretty good reasons (he even throws in a bonus one). My favorite is that he can use the $299 he’ll save to buy new apps for his current iPhone at the App Store. That’s pretty smart thinking. Get the rest of his reasons in the story.

Tuesday 10 June 2008 MONTREAL: iPHONE COMING TO CANADA
Apple's iPhone will start being marketed in Canada on July 11 with Rogers Wireless as its sole provider. The two companies say that price and rate plans will be announced later. The model iPhone is selling for US$199. Apple says the latest model has faster Internet connection and global positioning capabilities.

Tuesday Jun 10, 2008 Phone aims to chomp at cellphone market
After waiting more than a year for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Canadians will finally be able to get their hands on the device ...

Saturday 07 June 2008 Lost cameras "phone home" to catch thieves
Equipped with a special memory card with wireless Internet capability, DeLauzon's camera had not only automatically sent her holiday pictures to her computer, but had even uploaded photos of the miscreants who swiped her equipment bag after she accidentally left it behind at a restaurant.
"I opened up the Eye-Fi manager on the computer and, lo and behold, there are the guys that stole our cameras," said DeLauzon, a native of New York's Long Island suburb. "Not only is it the guy who stole our camera ... but the guy took a picture of (his accomplice) holding our other camera."

Wednesday 04 June 2008 OTTAWA: MP WANTS CRACKDOWN ON CELLPHONE FEES
Liberal Member of Parliament David McGuinty has introduced a private-member's bill that would crack down on what he considers abusive and dishonest fees charged by cellphone providers. Mr. McGuinty says the firms double-bill, change contract terms, offer deliberately obscurely worded contracts and charge "system-access fees." The firms offer a variety of explanations for the latter charge, some saying it's a government charge, which Industry Canada has denied. However, the president of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, Peter Barnes, the problem is essentially that customers dislike their bills when they talk too much or send too many text messages. He claims the industry is competitive and that wireless prices have dropped 45 per cent in the past five years. Private-member's bills aren't often passed in Parliament.

MONTREAL: CELLPHONE AUCTION RAISES BILLION
The Canadian government's wireless spectrum auction has received $1.2 billion in bids from the three established cellphone firms as well as newcomers to the market. The government is auctioning off 105 megahertz of radio spectrum to be used to cellphone service. Forty megahertz are reserved for firms not yet on the market. Telus Corp., one of the three established competitors, bid $183.5 million for 68 licences, while Quebecor Inc., a new player, bid $274.9 million for 24 spectrum licences. The auction is intended to introduce more competition into the cellphone business.

Wednesday 28 May 2008 OTTAWA: CELLPHONE AUCTION STARTS
Tuesday was the first day of the federal government's auction of 105 megahertz of radio spectrum to expand the use of cellular telephones. The auction is expected to attract the attention of the three biggest cellphone suppliers, Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. But one-third of the spectrum will be reserved for new entrants into the cellphone market, including such candidates as Quebecor. Industry Minister Jim Prentice says he's hopeful that the auction will lead to new competition and lower prices for consumers. Independent market reports have described Canada's cellphone market as among the least competitive in the industrial world.

Friday 16 May 2008 RIM Plans Touchscreen BlackBerry in Q3, WSJ Says
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion plans to launch a touch-screen version of the wireless e-mail device in the third quarter as an answer to Apple's iPhone, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Bargain Hunt: Unlocked Cell Phones
Bargain Hunt: Unlocked Cell Phones Your pockets need not be as deep as you once thought to bring home a top-of-the-line unlocked cell phone or smartphone. A slightly older model will have all the same perks--transatlantic roaming, software tinkering, and more--without the hefty sticker price. These four models from LG, Nokia, and Palm were all well received in PC Magazine Labs when we first reviewed them, and now they have prices that make them

Wednesday 14 May 2008 Does Apple hate Canada?
Higher prices, later launches and still no iPhone – you might think Apple hates Canada. It's not quite that simple

Improve wireless router signal strength

What do you do when you discover that your wireless network covers only half your house? Insufficient range is a common problem for many wireless networks, but there are ways to extend your coverage area into the places you need it most...

Read more...

Wednesday 30 April 2008 Rumor: 3G iPhone to sell for US$199

Tuesday Apr 29, 2008 Rogers bringing the iPhone to Canada
"This was a robust start to 2008 both operationally and financially for which I'm thankful to our loyal customers and our thousands of hard working employees," said Mr. Rogers. "While many challenges lie ahead in the coming quarters, we are well on track to deliver another year of strong growth in both subscribers and profitability."
Rogers Communications Inc. B shares (RCI.B/TSX) rose $2.21, or 5.2%, to $45.11 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

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Friday 04 April 2008 The Cream of the New Cell Phone Crop
Sleek sliders, colorful clamshells, and the fastest Internet tablet yet: There was something for everyone at 2008 CTIA, the largest North American wireless telecom show.

Thursday Apr 3, 2008 Wake-up call for cellphone firms
A former Quebec couple has scored a key legal victory for cellphone customers after a judge ruled they were duped into signing...Telus retailer Contact Com DL Communications of Laval slapped them with penalties totalling $1,794.72; all Telus contracts stipulate customers must pay $20 per month in penalty fees for every month remaining on a broken contract.
Telus retailer Contact Com DL Communications of Laval slapped them with penalties totalling $1,794.72; all Telus contracts stipulate customers must pay $20 per month in penalty fees for every month remaining on a broken contract.

Koodos to Telus
As Canada prepares to welcome new mobile phone companies, Telus Corp. has staked a pre-emptive move with its new discount...

Monday Mar 31, 2008 Cellphone voyeur is charged

A 22-year-old Toronto man has been charged with voyeurism after police seized a cellphone that had been used to discreetly snap numerous photographs of unknowing women at one of the city's largest shopping malls.The man was observed by security at the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto following women, taking photographs of their faces with his cellphone, police said yesterday. He then approached the women from behind and positioned his camera so he could take photographs up their skirts, police said.
Michael Ng, 22, of Toronto has been charged with one count of voyeurism.

Saturday Mar 29, 2008 No hands, no safer
When Quebec announced a ban on hand-held cellphones for drivers, Serge Boileau thought it might disrupt the work of the 40 employees he has on the road, so he started looking at hands-free technology. What he learned surprised him: studies show hands-free phones are just as dangerous as hand-held ones.

Friday Mar 28, 2008 What's next - the 'body phone'?
When Martin Cooper invented the cell phone 35 years ago, he envisioned a world with people so wedded...
Cooper said he was so enthused after his first mobile call that he liked to joke that phone numbers would become so important that "when you were born you would get a phone number and if you didn't answer it you would die."
"The idea is that the phone number becomes part of you," said Cooper, who is also waiting for the day when he merely thinks about calling a particular person and the phone will automatically dial the number.
...merely thinks about calling a particular person and the phone will automatically dial the number.

240x342
The spectrum auction’s missed opportunity
ONE of the dirtiest tricks played on American consumers is the way their country’s mobile-phone companies force them to use phones sold through the companies’ stores, then lock them into two-year contracts with punitive cancellation fees. Asians and Europeans—who can take their mobiles from one provider to another, and use them on different networks around the world—shake their heads in amazement at Americans’ meek acceptance of such anti-competitive practices.

Thursday 27 March 2008 Approval for mobiles on aircraft
One of the regulatory hurdles to using mobile phones on planes flying in European airspace is removed.

Sunday 23 March 2008 Cellphones and drivers
Durham MPP John O'Toole is a very determined man. Last week, the Progressive Conservative backbencher reintroduced his private member's bill to ban drivers from using hand-held cellphones while operating their cars. This is his sixth attempt to get the Ontario Legislature to vote in favour of common sense. [Quebec did!]

Friday 07 March 2008 Your call is important to us
Software: Making call centres run smoothly involves an ever-greater dependency on technological trickery behind the scenes

Thursday 14 February 2008 WATERLOO: BLACKBERRY SERVICE RESTORED
Canadian technology firm Research in Motion, maker of the popular email device Blackberry, says it has restored its email and Internet services. North American users were deprived of them for several hours on Monday because of a technical failure. RIM on Tuesday apologized to its customers for their inconvenience, explaining that a preliminary investigation indicated the disruption was caused by the failure of one of its recently upgraded systems aimed at increasing overall capacity to meet long-term growth in demand. . RIM has 12 million Blackberry subscribers and has agreements with various telephone and telecommunications firms to make the BlackBerry usable throughout the world.

Saturday Feb 9, 2008 We're saying goodbye to hello as it joins other expressions you don't hear anymore
Say goodbye to hello, a word that's suddenly disappearing from our vocabulary.

Saturday Feb 2, 2008 Trying to break CrackBerry cycle
It might be wishful thinking, but Citizenship and Immigration Canada has sent out a directive to its...

Sunday 27 January 2008 Cellphone software helps you speak volumes
SpinVox is a service that translates voicemail to text, rolled out over the past couple of months by Rogers Wireless (and soon from Telus) to BlackBerry devices, PDAs, smartphones or cellphones as SMS messages. $15 a month for an unlimited number of converted messages.

TIME Tuesday 08 January 2008 cuts life Cell Phones Prolong Your Commute but shorten life!

2007

Monday 10 December 2007 Cellphone service will find toilets
LONDON — A new service promises Londoners they'll never have to spend much time looking for the loo. Westminster City Council, which covers London's bustling Oxford Street, the West End, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, on Thursday launched "SatLav" — a toilet-finding service for cellphone users.
...The council said it hopes the service will stop people from urinating in alleyways, saying some 10,000 gallons of urine ends up in Westminster streets each year.

Friday Nov 30, 2007 Cellphone subscriptions hit 3.3 billion
Worldwide cellphone subscriptions reached 3.3 billion - equivalent to half the global population - yesterday, 26 years after...
According to the International Programs Centre of the U.S. Census Bureau, the total population of the world reached 6.63 billion yesterday.
At the same time, 2.57 billion people were using the most widely used mobile technology, GSM (Global System for Mobile communications), according to the GSM Association, a global trade body.
The second-largest mobile technology, CDMA, had 421.4 million users at the end of September.

Kumaar Thakkar of India says he exports 20 jammers a month to the United States. His clients include a school bus driver.
Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally November 4, 2007

2 November 2007 Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally
“She was using the word ‘like’ all the time. She sounded like a Valley Girl,” said the architect, Andrew, who declined to give his last name because what he did next was illegal.

Andrew reached into his shirt pocket and pushed a button on a black device the size of a cigarette pack. It sent out a powerful radio signal that cut off the chatterer’s cellphone transmission — and any others in a 30-foot radius.
“She kept talking into her phone for about 30 seconds before she realized there was no one listening on the other end,” he said. His reaction when he first discovered he could wield such power? “Oh, holy moly! Deliverance.”
Communication Studies at Rutgers University. “The cellphone talker thinks his rights go above that of people around him, and the jammer thinks his are the more important rights.”
... The range varies from several feet to several yards, and the devices cost from $50 to several hundred dollars. Larger models can be left on to create a no-call zone. ... Investigators from the F.C.C. and Verizon Wireless visited an upscale restaurant in Maryland over the last year, the restaurant owner said. The owner, who declined to be named, said he bought a powerful jammer for $1,000 because he was tired of his employees focusing on their phones rather than customers. more

Monday 05 November 2007 Google dials into the cellphone market
Google aims to shake up mobile phone market with free software
....Google's system will also be based on computer code that can be openly distributed among programmers. That, Google hopes, will encourage developers to create new applications and other software improvements that could spawn new uses for smart phones. A development tool kit for working on the new platform will be released next week.

Tuesday Oct 2, 2007 Calling Dr. Cellphone
Each time Joyce Telford visited the doctor and had her blood pressure measured, it always came back

Sunday 30 September 2007 A Cellphone Without Borders
It’s amazing the way the Internet keeps toppling traditional businesses. Telegrams have gone away. Music CD sales are tanking. Newspapers are hurting.

Sunday 30 September 2007 Nokia selling $25,000 Ferrari phones

If you thought the iPhone was overpriced, stop reading this story now.

Nokia Corp.'s exclusive Vertu subsidiary is selling a €18,000 ($25,400) phone in shops in Paris, London, Hong Kong and Singapore.

GrandCentral.com will give you one universal phone number. but in the US only

Who needs a BlackBerry or a Treo? David Pogue reviews three free services that send your e-mail to any cellphone.

www.gotvoice.com | www.jaduka.com thanks Mark Stachiew

Sunday 23 September 2007 Software That Fills a Cellphone Gap
VANU BOSE is the son of a fabled engineer, but he garnered no mercy when he presented his big idea at a technical conference in 1996. Mr. Bose’s graduate work at M.I.T. involved using software to handle the radio function in a cellular phone. He remembers that after he successfully demonstrated his technology, an audience member stood up and dismissed it with: “Congratulations! You’ve just invented the world’s most expensive cellphone.”

Friday 14 September 2007 From iPhone to gPhone?
JUST 74 days after launching its iPhone, Apple said this week that it had already sold 1m of the things—a milestone that its previous blockbuster product, the iPod, took almost two years to reach.
...In July it bought GrandCentral Communications, a firm that gives users one single phone number for life. And it recently filed a patent application for a new mobile-payment technology.

nyt 36 Hours in Ottawa

Saturday 11 August 2007

Cellphone liberators

Gavin Diggs, a technician at Citi Mobility, with some of the phones he sells and unlocks at the Ste. Catherine St. store. Many of his clients are from outside the country. Unlocking their phones saves them from having to buy a new one.

A cottage industry is forming. It's out to "unlock" handsets from the restrictions service providers put on them

There's a mutiny quietly brewing in the cellphone world. ...Gavin Diggs, a technician at Citi Mobility, with some of the phones he sells and unlocks at the Ste. Catherine St. store. Many of his clients are from outside the country. Unlocking their phones saves them from having to buy a new one. 1117 Saint Catherine ST. West Suite 207 Montreal, Quebec, H3B-1H9. Phone: 1-514-510-0890 Users are rising up to liberate their phones...

W 300i $190CAD GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900

Monday 06 August 2007 A Half-Win for Cellphone Users
In setting rules for the sale of the last slice of beachfront property available in the radio spectrum, the Federal Communications Commission went a little ways toward a free wireless market.

Friday 06 July 2007 Norwegian hacker says he can bypass AT&T on iPhone
...."The iPhone does not have phone capability, but the iPod and Wi-Fi work. Stay tuned!" he wrote on his long-running blog, which is combatively named "So Sue Me." The post was entitled "iPhone Independence Day," a play on the July 4 U.S. holiday.

Is the iPhone the New iPod?

Has the iPod finally reached its end? Researchers are reporting that sales of digital music players have slowed, further pummeling poor results at electronics retailers Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and Circuit City (NYSE: CC). It's an ugly picture. Best Buy fell far short of Street estimates for net income in its latest quarter. Circuit City, meanwhile, suffered a 5.6% decline in same-store sales. Both retailers cited a tougher market for...
Read More...

Monday 02 July 2007 Any Phone Can be an iPhone
Sascha Segan

Do you have iPhone envy? Are you looking at your current phone and thinking: "I wish I could have an iPhone. Those iPhones, I've heard, are darn pretty hot." Fortunately, there's software that can enable many phones with some, if not all, of the features that Steve Jobs has shown on his fancy magic slab. And all of this comes at a fraction of the price of the iPhone.

Friday 29 June 2007 RIM VS. PALM
Tale of two devices
Palm may have pioneered the market, but RIM is its leader.
• RIM dodges rivals (24/7 Wall St.)

As Apple fans queue for iPhone, BlackBerry maker RIM is among Friday's standouts as stocks maneuver northward. Tame reading on retail-level inflation helps inspire buyers.
• Treasurys gain after inflation data
U.S. ECONOMY | Economy & Politics
Inflation cool to the core
Core reading — which excludes food and energy — shows consumer prices rising just 0.1% in May and up 1.9% over 12 months.
• Construction spending picks up
• Consumer sentiment improves
• Chicago region shows strength

Apple CEO Jobs shows off iPhone.

Tuesday 26 June 2007 OTTAWA: CRTC REJECTS PHONE FIRMS 'CONNECTION' CHANGE PROPOSAL
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has rejected a suggestion by the country's three biggest telephone companies concerning the fees they change customers who are new or are moving. At present, Bell Canada, Bell Aliant Regional Communications and Telus Corp.
charge such between $55 and $100. The companies had proposed to the communications watchdog that the connection charge be eliminated in return for higher rates for all home phone users. The Commission reminded the companies that it had given them more scope to compete to attract new and win back old customers, including among other things through promotions, and that if they wish to eliminate connection fees they are free to apply at any time to do so. The companies' requests were opposed by several public interest groups which argued that the proposed change discriminated against those who did not move and had already paid the connection fees. The companies argued vainly the the changes would have favoured poorer customers who move often.

Monday 25 June 2007 The iPhone will cost me at least US$2245, how about you?

Sunday 17 June 2007 NYT Podcast on cell ohones | Menu

June 14, 20075-Megapixel camera phone on its way
Sony Ericsson has confirmed its 5-Megapixel handset will come to Canada this fall.
Expect more info and images soon right here

Technorati Tags: 5, bell, blog, camera, cameraphone, cyber, cyber-shot, cybershot, ericsson, flash, handset, megapixel, mms, phone, photo, picture, podcast, rogers, shot, sony, telus, xenon

Wednesday 18 April 2007 BlackBerry network suffers system failure
...“What we've learned, from RIM is that as of 6

2008

iPhone premiere

Gadgeteers in lather as mobile phone makes Canadian debut

2007

Cellphone liberators

A cottage industry is forming. It's out to "unlock" handsets from the restrictions service providers put on them