Wireless Week In Review

Industry Canada The North American wireless news cycle was somewhat slower than usual this week as the U.S. of A. celebrated its annual Memorial Day. Google, however, livened up the week by showing off its long-awaited Android operating system to developers at a U.S. trade show. As well, the long-awaited Canadian wireless spectrum auction got off to an inauspicious start though a numbered company backed by financiers M/C Venture Partners and Columbia Capital and Novacap in Quebec re-entered the race spicing up an otherwise dull affair.

1) Canadian spectrum auction begins: Quebecor, Telus and Globalive have grabbed the early lead to buy the largest swaths of spectrum from Industry Canada, in what may be the last opportunity to grab the finite resource. The federal government, which has reserved about 40% of the available spectrum for new entrants, hopes to bring down cell phone prices by subsidizing the cost of entry for companies such as Videotron, Shaw Communications and other well-financed companies.

Impact: Minimal. The winners won’t be decided for another two weeks and much bidding remains. It seems like a safe bet to assume there will soon be strong regional entrants in Quebec and in Western Canada in if not the rest of the country. Perhaps Bell, Telus and Rogers shouldn’t have pushed the price envelope on cell phones as much as they have in past. The winners should be decided by the end of June.

2) Google Android operating system: Images of the open source mobile OS were shown off by the search engine king at a trade show in California. At the demo, Google showed developers a feature whereby users will be able to unlock an Android-powered smartphone by drawing a shape on the screen. A Google-powered phone will also include traditional mobile device features such as an internet browser, map software, compass, multimedia applications, text messaging, calendar functions and email.

Impact: Google’s cell phone interface is a lot slicker than those of most handset manufacturers. However, it’ll be years before the company grabs even a slice of the market as its handset and carrier partners are of the second-tier variety. Its 30-party alliance is chock a block with non-exclusive agreements which may make it harder for the company to keep its loose coalition together over time.

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May 30, 2008 | Filed Under News Items and Commentary 

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