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Rogers Wireless-Nokia together instigates N-Gage and Nokia Maps (Canada)

  • September 10th, 2008
  • 8:52 am

Rogers Wireless and Nokia are in an agreement by which the consumers can experience the latest in mobile gaming and Navigation on Nokia devices. With Nokia Maps, GPS functionality and featuring Location Based Services, allows users to proficiently navigate whether searching for an unfamiliar address in their home city or exploring a vacation destination. Now the consumers can view the world in a new way, with on-screen maps for more than 160 countries and millions of points of interest.

With Nokia N-Gage, consumers can easily search for, try and buy the best in mobile games with a range of innovative, made-for-mobile titles from Nokia, such as Reset Generation and Dirk Dagger and The Fallen Idol, as well as popular brands from leading 3rd party publishers. As they connect with other users through the N-Gage Arena community, consumers can really enjoy their experience of mobile gaming. In Canada, primarily this service is available for use on the Nokia N95 8GB.

Globalive Communications to go mobile by H2′09 (Canada)

  • September 5th, 2008
  • 11:22 am

Globalive Communications, Canada, is planning to launch it’s commercial mobile service ver the newly built network by Q2′09. The company won the 30 wireless spectrum licences worth CAD442 million (USD416 million) in a national auction in July.
According to a Canadian newspaper, Weather, is also committed to invest USD700 million over four years in the Canadian start-up, which plans to roll out commercial wireless services in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver in its first rollout phase in 2H09, following a trial scheduled for the Q2′09.

Globalive will have it’s focus on pre-paid voice services, rather than data services such as streaming video and TV, in contrast to the plans of it’s national competitors Rogers, Bell and Telus. It also hopes to differentiate itself from the established network operators by providing better customer service, simpler pricing plans without hidden charges, and less expensive phones. Globalive is currently tendering for network infrastructure vendors and is reportedly down to a shortlist of two.

   

Roger Wireless to launch two new iPhone plans on October 1, extends the current plan (Canada)

  • August 29th, 2008
  • 7:25 am

Rogers Wireless, the iPhone carrier in Canada, which created a “limited-time offer” iPhone plan that costs $30/month, has been extended to the end of September. This plan was suppose to end on 31st August.
Rogers will be introducing a new iPhone data plan from October 1. This new plan will cost $25 a month for 500 megabytes. The company will as well bring in a “peace of mind protection plan” that will allow data users to monitor their activity via a free incoming text messages that warns them when they go over a specific level.

   

Roger Wireless may recieve highest ARPU at US$ 65.29 per month in 2010 (Canada)

  • August 28th, 2008
  • 12:06 pm

Canada’s telecommunications environment is fully privatised with the government having no holding in any telecom carrier. Telecom Service Providers within the Canadian market are broadly categorised as either incumbents or competitors. Incumbents are the telephone companies that provided telecom services on a regional monopoly basis prior to the introduction of competition, and include the out-of-territory affiliates of the incumbents.

Telus Communications, Canada, has posted net profit of CAD267 million (USD250 million) for Q2′08. The company said it added 176,000 new wireless subscribers in Q2, including 157,000 post-paid subscribers, higher than the 2Q contract user net additions reported by rivals Bell Canada and Rogers Communications.

Operators       - subscribers (MARCH’08)

Rogers Wireless - 7.406 million
Bell Mobility   - 6.260 million
Telus Mobility  - 5.656 million
SaskTel Mobility- 0.452 million
MTS Mobility    - 0.400 million

Rogers Wireless, Canada, introduces BlackBerry Bold smartphone to it’s subscribers in Canada.
Naskapi Imuun and OmniGlobe Networks signed agreements that creates Canada’s first national cellular service provider equally owned by an Aboriginal partner. The new joint-venture known as Lynx Mobility Inc. combines leading technology and innovative business models to deliver cellular phone services to small un-served communities in remote and rural Canada.

Notable highlights of the 3Q08 Canada Mobile Forecast include:

  • The wireless penetration level in Canada is forecasted to be 71.5% in 2010. Total subscribers in Canada are forecasted to increase from 20.4 million in 2008 to 24.9 million in 2010.
  • Given the success of the spectrum auction and the entry of new players, a slight decline in market shares is forecasted among the incumbent operators on Canada. For Bell Mobily, it estimated that it’s current 31.3% market share is the most vulnerable to erosion by new entrants. Rogers Wireless is being seen as the strongest incumbent wireless operator and its market share expected to be 36.3% of subscribers in 2010.
  • Monthly churn rates will continue to be similar across different operators and they will stay in the range of 1.8% - 2%.
  • It is forecasted that Rogers Wireless will receive the highest ARPU among other wireless operators in 2010 at US$ 65.29 per month. Rogers Wireless will also have the highest MOU per subscriber at 720 minutes per month in 2010.

   

Home launch of BlackBerry Bold fails to drum up Canadian market (Canada)

  • August 22nd, 2008
  • 9:31 am

Recently, Canadian wireless giant RIM silently instigated its latest BlackBerry Bold smart phone in its home country.  It is anticipated that BlackBerry Bold will challenge  iPhone 3G  but it fails to generate the same excitement as created by Apple device.  Blackberry Bold is also supported by third-generation wireless networks. The new subscribers will have to sign a three-year contract with Rogers Wireless, with an initial payment of $399 which includes cost of the device. “Rogers Wireless is proud to be first to offer Canadians the world’s fastest BlackBerry smartphone on Canada’s fastest mobile network,'’ said John Boynton, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Rogers Wireless. “The much awaited BlackBerry Bold smartphone is a ‘must have’ for connoisseurs of premium products and mobile workers who want to remain connected and productive no matter where their jobs may take them,” he said.  BlackBerry Bold enters Canadian market after RIM unveiled it in many European and South American markets.

Rogers Wireless brings BlackBerry Bold to it’s subscribers (Canada)

  • August 22nd, 2008
  • 8:06 am

Rogers Wireless, Canada, introduces BlackBerry Bold smartphone to it’s subscribers in Canada.
This QWERTY keyboard device operates on Rogers’ high-speed 3G network and built-in GPS, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi and multimedia capabilities including a 2 megapixel camera with video recording and an advanced media player to play music, watch videos and view pictures.
The BlackBerry Bold 9000 is available at $399.99 with activation on any combination of 3 year voice plan and three year BlackBerry data plan totalling more than $45 per month from Rogers.

   

Rogers Wireless commits to buy $150 million worth of iPhone (Canada)

  • July 31st, 2008
  • 7:58 am

Rogers Wireless’s network virtually came to a grinding halt the day of the Apple iPhone announcement back in April reports Electronista.

Although the mobile business has helped Rogers draw year-over-year quarterly revenue increase of 11 percent to $2.8 billion without the iPhone on sale, the company executive states that demand for other devices “slammed on the brakes” the same day as Rogers announced it would launch the Apple iPhone.

Apparently, demand for mobile devices remained calm up until the launch of the Apple iPhone, resulting in Nokia and Rogers both halving the price of the N95 8GB handset to $200.00 only a week before the iPhone launch in an attempt to stimulate sales.

Apparently, Rogers has committed to purchasing $150 million worth of Apple iPhones, and will purchase more if necessary.

   

IPhone 3G ready for global debut (USA)

  • July 11th, 2008
  • 2:37 pm

With the pizazz of a Hollywood premiere and the precision of a military campaign, Apple will roll out its next-generation iPhone on Friday across 22 countries.

A global release like this is a huge logistical undertaking fraught with possible pitfalls for even a tightly run company like Apple. Nokia ships 1.5 million phones a day - but it doesn’t do it under the watchful eyes of legions of bloggers covering Apple’s every twitch.

“These blogs act as a reverberation chamber for the good and the bad,” said Shiv Bakhshi, IDC’s director of mobile devices research. “Each story gets repeated and repeated and repeated.”

Already, the blogosphere is barking about a three-year service plan being demanded by Rogers Wireless in Canada. More than 58,000 Canadians have signed a petition at www.ruinediphone.com protesting what they say are excessive fees being charged by the operator. On Wednesday, Rogers Wireless revised its data plan, but bloggers still weren’t happy.

Though the usually secretive Cupertino company doesn’t reveal its production plans, analysts and supply chain experts say such an ambitious undertaking requires planning and backup planning.

For Apple, though, the headaches are worth it. It aims to position itself as a leading maker of pocket PCs at a pivotal moment in the worldwide smart-phone market. While the high-end mobile devices are just 10 to 12 percent of the 1 billion cell phones sold every

year, smart-phones are expected to significantly gain market share in coming years.
3G network

And Apple, still a relatively small player in the smart-phone industry, is hoping to innovate its way into the pockets of consumers around the world with a lower-priced iPhone that for the first time is engineered to run on a faster 3G network. By year’s end, the iPhone will be sold in 70 countries.

“Apple had to be aggressive with a global rollout in order to be relevant,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies. “Based on its software and service, Apple is far ahead of its competitors. Their competitors are at least 12 to 18 months behind.”

A successful launch day will help the company meet its goal of selling 10 million of the devices by the end of the year. That requires well-synced steps with manufacturing partners, phone operators and marketing and sales teams stretched around the world.

“It’s not on a dissimilar scale as the landing they just did on Mars,” said Anne Patterson, a supply-chain executive who now is vice president at San Jose-based FreeFlow. “If there is any hiccup, that will get as much coverage as the things that worked.”

Much of the heavy lifting occurred during the spring, or earlier. Apple hired long-trusted partner Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electronic products, to assemble the device. Hon Hai, an equally secretive company whose trade name is Foxconn, corralled various subcontractors to supply components of the device. And it has helped oversee the complex logistics needed to ensure the iPhones arrive on the right shelves at the right time.

Apple would not want an iPhone configured to work in, say, Hong Kong, to arrive at its Los Gatos store.

“It’s sort of like Christmas in the United States,” Patterson said. “If that consumer electronics product is not on the boat from China by the first week in October, it’s not going to happen.”

Painstaking strategy

Analysts speculate that Apple has set up its own version of a war room to handle any problems that arise.

“Apple would be remiss if it hasn’t set up some sort of command center to track how things are rolling out and to help if there are glitches of any kind,” Bakhshi said. “A little prayer might also be involved.”

Apple’s iPhone, originally available in only six countries, is challenging cell-phone giants like Nokia, Samsung and Motorola. Apple’s influence is already rippling across the globe. It triggered a number of copy-cat devices by other mobile device makers. But they are spinning out their own innovations, as well. Like Apple, competitors such as Microsoft and Nokia are encouraging a community of independent developers to create applications for their platforms.

In Japan and South Korea, though, the iPhone may have a hard time being anything more than a novelty item.

“In Asia, the devices are more sophisticated, the applications more advanced,” said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless industry analyst. “Japanese use them for mobile payments. They’ve been doing that for at least four years.”

Nonetheless, there is significant overseas demand for iPhones. Analysts estimate at least 1 million handsets have been unlocked to run on unauthorized wireless networks.

“Even though the U.S. is kind of behind technologically in the mobile space, culturally the rest of the world still sees the U.S. as the leader,” said Daniel Longfield, a wireless industry analyst for Frost & Sullivan. “So if it’s popular in the United States, it’s going to be popular everywhere else.”

From New York City to Tokyo, customers are lining up days before Friday’s launch day to ensure they get one of the first new-generation iPhones.

IDC’s Bakhshi expects a smooth rollout.

“They execute meticulously,” he said. “That’s in their favor. They do things with elan.”

   

 

Rogers Wireless to invest $10 million to expand mobile phone network in B.C. (Canada)

  • September 14th, 2007
  • 7:20 am

Rogers Wireless (TSX:RCI.B, TSX:RCI.A) will spend $10 million in northern British Columbia to expand its voice and data network, the company said Thursday.

The network expansion will be along the corridor stretching from Prince Rupert to Prince George.

The first phase will bring Rogers wireless service to Prince Rupert and Terrace in November, while Smithers, Kitimat and Hazelton will follow next year.

Rogers Wireless, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., provides of wireless voice and data communications across Canada under the Rogers Wireless and Fido brands.

   
 

Will the iPhone support Microsoft Exchange?

  • July 4th, 2007
  • 12:49 pm

The last time this question was asked, it surrounded a quote in the Wall Street Journal given during Walt Mossberg’s review of the device. The review had a single quote about Exchange support if there was a setting allowed by the IT department. This is true because the iPhone supports IMAP email and Microsoft Exchange has a setting that will allow IMAP to function on an Exchange server. The issue that many took, with the press announcements after that review, was that the stories started to get really hyped up because at no time did the review or Apple announce Exchange support.

Apple said in many interviews about the iPhone that there would be a move to support business in the future. It appears that the future is sooner than many first thought, as soon as the third quarter of 2007; IT departments might start allowing the iPhone on the network. Why will this happen? Because of a little publicized news release from Visto over the weekend.

Visto enables email for the mass market, targeting enterprises, small businesses mobile professionals and consumers. The company’s patented Visto Mobile platform with ConstantSync technology works in real time with POP3, IMAP, Microsoft Exchange and IBM’s Lotus Domino email platforms “Visto’s customized, brandable solutions are available through mobile operators worldwide including Elisa, Rogers Wireless, Qtel,   SmarTone, SFR, Softbank Mobile, Sprint-NEXTEL, TELUS, Turkcell and the Vodafone Group,” the company said.

On Friday, Visto announced that they would offer the same level of services and support to Apple and by proxy their iPhone customers. Through Visto, iPhone users will experience secure mobile access to current and legacy versions of both Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino corporate messaging platforms. Visto said that their mobile platform would enable access that is easy to implement and administer and will alleviate IT concerns regarding security and reliability.

“The iPhone and other devices to follow will continue to accelerate demand for secure mobile access to corporate data including email, contacts, calendar and other important information sources,” said Brian Bogosian, CEO of Visto. “To be useful to business users, it must easily and securely provide access to corporate email - and that’s where Visto adds value and functionality for end users as they consider the iPhone over BlackBerry, Symbian or Windows Mobile devices as their single converged device to support both their personal and business needs.”

Visto Mobile will directly offer secure and easy-to-use mobile access to corporate and personal email for the iPhone in the United States. Additionally, Visto Mobile offers iPhone users peace of mind by securing their personal information using end-to-end security. For IT departments, this means that they can encrypt and   protect sensitive corporate data without making any changes to their existing security infrastructure.

Visto Mobile for the iPhone will be available in late Q3 2007. iPhone users will be able to take advantage of a free sixty-day trial of the Visto Mobile service.