Wireless innovation in Canada despite the carriers (5)
The first edition of the CWMF was hold on Thursday in Montreal. We were 200 business people with a strong interest in wireless management and in wireless innovation. I see in this event as well as in the recent Rogers data plans drop the possibility for Canada to remain a place where wireless world leaders can exist/grow.
Iain Grant kicks ass. Canada just ahead of Guyana.
Iain got everyone to laugh when he mentioned Canada’s peer group in term of mobile penetration. Nevertheless 2008 has seen a significant drop in data plans. And the new entrants should lead to a voice plans drop. Not much to expect for business users yet.
Sweat, blood and pocket money to build/grow your business/products
The round table gathered 3 innovative Montreal based wireless companies: Lipso, Soluteo and Radio IP. They are privately hold (after a VC shares buyback for Lipso). Bootstrapping is a key of their success as they could focus on their vision rather than being disturbed by short term vision of external investors. Vivianne Gravel, Lipso, also mentioned the benefits of collaborating with the right partners, both in Montreal and abroad. 4 established - and innovating - businesses were sitting on the other side of the round: CN, Vidéotron, Air Canada and Canoe. They insisted they were happy to find reliable local partners … even if, according to Patrice Ouellette, this is not always easy. Thumbs up to Francis Beaulieu for mentioning Mobile Monday Montreal as a place/hub to connect with local wireless innovators.
Everything mobile. Wireless broadband required.
Alex Suter gave an instructive speech on hyper connectivity. Your clients and your employees expect their mobile devices to give them what a wired connection would give them: IM, phone calls, conferencing, video. Wavesat multimode 4G chips let manufacturers build devices that allow you to be always connected, whatever network you use: 3G, WiFi, WiMAX.
Train your employees for a successful smartphones implementation
The CWMF didn’t gather as much geeks as it gathered business administrators. Benoit Descary went through the challenges he helps his clients to handle when implementing smartphones in their corporation.
Microsoft convincing on unified communications until the demo
Frédéric Asselin demonstrated how he is having only an email and a phone number on his business card. You call him and that rings on his laptop. It simultaneously rings on his cell phone if that is during business hours (defined in his Outlook calendar). A voicemail will be routed to his Outlook mailbox, as well as on his phone. The theory was great. And the demo was convincing … until he called to hear his calendar. He was supposed to speak he was 20 minutes late and the system would send a message to all the other attendees. But this we never saw.
Overall the event was admirably organised (even if there was no free WiFi). There were enough breaks to connect with other participants. I both met passionates and business administrators.
- Adrien O’Leary
Disclaimer: I have worked for Mobile Maestria, who is the promoter of the event, in September.
this is a great report, Adrien! I’ve done a couple of videos for MTW in the past, and I know how much it takes time.
congrats for the coverage
Congratulations, that’s a nice report!
Too bad, you were alone covering two series of events occurring in parallel.
Rick Bylina’s presentation about Motorola technology maintaining sessions for real mobile users (ie. not just remote users, relying on traditional VPN accesses) was also worth listening.
I really appreciated the openness of the attendees, the speakers and the followers ;) I hope that I’ll be able to transform few ideas in real projects, so I might have a chance to present something in a future conference!
While analysts focused on the bottom line impact for Rogers Wireless, it may be that the most important effects have already been felt in Canada since more than any industry statistics or speeches, the iPhone’s slow entry into Canada has crystallized the view that the Canadian wireless market is hopelessly behind the rest of the world with limited competition, higher prices, and less choice.
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Tanyaa
Viral Marketing
What ever happened to the Wimax network that was supposed to be build in Montreal? With the new collaboration of SR Telecom and the Lagasse Group, will anything happen?
Gabriel, the wimax network project by radioactive was shut down, they didn’t have the money to do it
By the way, if you’re looking for a service like wimax, Bell and Rogers provide this (the inukshuk network, a pre-wimax tech). you need to buy a modem and you’re good to get high-speed internet on the road … and in montreal too
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