Pierre Karl Péladeau denounces Canadian Mobile Industry (11)
Pierre Karl Péladeau, CEO and founder of Québecor, blamed Bell, Telus and Rogers yesterday for the institutionalized “oligopole” in the canadian cellular industry. At the Canadian club of Ottawa, he added that a Canadian pays in average 33% more for their mobile plan compared to an american.
This is no big news for noone in the technology sector.
The biggest news is that Videotron, a Quebecor subsidiary, will enter the mobile phone industry. Videotron is already a virtual mobile network, and have had good results in 2006. The company uses however Rogers’ mobile network and looses a lot in terms of margins and flexibility. Now Videotron plans to install and have its own mobile network.
This is by far the biggest tech news of the month. Videotron plans to install a 3G network, which will then be the most advanced network in North America. 3G networks, based on UMTS, are already in use throughout Europe and Asia, and allow subscribers to view live TV, internet, radio and multimedia services at a minimum of 144kpbs in rural zones, and up to 2.0Mbps in heavily covered areas, the average being 384kpbs. If this comes in Canada, it may start a revolution in how canadians use the internet.
With a UMTS network, Montréalers could use 3G devices – enabling high-tech features like mobile video and broadband-speed internet on their cell phone
Videotron plans to get a licence this summer during the auctions held by Industry Canada. If they get it, they promise to do the same thing they did with local telephony, which was mainly dropping dynamite in the dinosaurs’s nest.
There are many open questions, like the coverage (which city and province gets the best coverage), what would be the CRTC’s reaction, and also what kind of technology videotron will choose for their new network. I would also hate it if i was forced to watch TVA and Quebecor-branded media with the service. But, overall this is great news for innovation and for consumers.
Isn’t 3G the same as EVDO, GSM, GPRS ???
no
GSM is 1st generation technology
GPRS and EVDO are 2 names for 2G networks. you can get the internet, and some pre-recorded videos with EVDO (think of Bell ads for instance)
UMTS is 3rd Generation, which brings broadband internet (like you have at home) in your cell phone
Currently, North America is at 2G, while Europe and Asia are at 3G
ohhh.. thanks for the clarification!
I obviously don’t know nearly enough about these technologies.
It’s unfortunate that Quebecor will be spearheading this project though. They will surely find a way to screw us out of something good.
I know I know… this can be argued for hours. It’s just my opinion ;)
Some clarifications on cellular terminology:
1G: analogue circuit switched voice, several standards.
2G: digital circuit switched voice; two dominant standards, GSM which has about 70% of the world market and is present in almost every country and CDMA with perhaps a 20-25% share of the global market and is concentrated in North America, South Korea and a few other places. Bell and Telus use CDMA, while Rogers/Fido use GSM.
2.5G: digital circuit switched voice + low speed packet data. An intermediate step (relatively low-cost upgrade) on the path to 3G. GPRS is the 2.5G upgrade to GSM and 1xRTT is the equivalent in the CDMA world.
2.75G: (yeah I know this is getting ridiculous) digital circuit switched voice + intermediate speed packet data. EDGE for the GSM folks and EVDO for the CDMA gang.
3G: digital circuit switched voice + high speed packet data. In the GSM world, the technology used is CDMA2000, but the service is called UMTS. In practice many people just use the term UMTS. In the CDMA world the 3G technology is EVDO revision A, B. 3G technology is widely deployed in the more industrialised Asian nations, in Europe and is being rolled out in North America.
4G: high speed packet data. Everything is an IP packet, even the voice call, so you are, in effect, using VoIP when making a call with a 4G system. No real deployments yet.
hi daniel
thanks for the comment!
i made an error with GSM which is in fact a 2G technology. sorry about that
however, i don’t want to differentiate technologies with 2, 2.5, 2.75, 3 and 4G technology. i was talking about canada and the usage, which is actually phone calls and SMS.
if Rogers and videotron goes to 3G, i believe it will create a disruption in the way canadians use their mobile phone.
Wireless data in Canada is ridiculously expensive:
December 11, 2005:
http://www.bmannconsulting.com/blog/bmann/wireless-data-in-canada-is-ridiculously-expensive
Boris has several posts about this:
http://www.bmannconsulting.com/taxonomy/term/83
[...] reported earlier this year, Pierre-Karl Peladeau and his group Videotron announced their intention to enter the mobile [...]
CDMA2000 is used by Bell and Telus and is not UMTS… CDMA2000 is the standard we know commonly as CDMA whereas W-CDMA/UMTS is a separate standard and the continuation of the GSM standard (sometimes referred to as 3GSM in Europe).
Within 1xRTT networks, CDMA2000 is considered 2.5G whereas within EVDO networks it is considered as 3G.
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