Globalive Chairman Tony Lacavera phone interview (after government overturned CRTC decision)

I appreciate very much Globalive chairman Tony Lacavera taking time today (a Sunday) to have an interview with me to talk about Globalive/WIND Mobile‘s plans after the government of Canada overturning the CRTC decision 2009-678 (PDF).

As a current Bell Mobility customer, I am excited to see a new wireless provider coming to the oligopolistic Canadian marketplace. The following are some highlights of my interview with Tony (mp3 download).

* WIND Mobile‘s plan to sign up new customers before Christmas and new year

WIND Mobile stores will open this week and Tony confirmed that WIND will roll out its wireless service as soon as possible and most likely before Christmas. I tried but was unable to get Tony to say the launch will be this week. Tony sees WIND has one chance to demonstrate to Canadians that it is a serious 4th national wireless provider competing with the likes of Bell, Telus, and Rogers. So he wants to launch when everything is ready. (Dec 15th update: BlackBerry Bold 9700. Dec 14th update: According to WIND’s latest press release, at 10:30am on Dec 16th, Tony and Ken Campbell, CEO of WIND will be unveiling the WIND Mobile store, and “the full line-up of products and services.   The WIND network is currently live and fully operational with beta customers actively using the service and providing feedback.“)

* Phones, Apple iPhones, and Google Phones

WIND will have a few different phones available at launch and hope to expand on the choices available to include more offers. At launch, iPhones will not be available but will be available in the near future as WIND network can technically support the phones. As to the Google Phones, Tony also assured me the WIND network can support it when the phones are available. (Dec 14 Update: Some pricing & devices rumours from MobileSyrup, “Are these the Wind Mobile price plans?” and “The week the WIND came rushing in…“. We will know for sure on Dec 16th.)

* Last Friday on BNN, Tony said WIND Mobile has a target of 4-6 million subscribers in 5 years. I asked about their expected number of new customers vs customers that switch?

Tony explained that it will be difficult to estimate as different cities have different number of providers and level of competitions. For example, in Toronto, there are 7 brands/sub-brands operating and that is different from other smaller cities.

(Dec 14 update: BMO Nesbitt Burns telecom analyst Peter Rhamey estimates, “three dominant players – BCE (BCE-T), Telus (T-T) and Rogers Communcations (RCI-T) – stand to see a 5 to 10 per cent decline in subscriber additions next year … along with a price war, will erode earnings per share by 2.5 per cent at BCE and 5 per cent at Telus and Rogers“)

* Comment re “foreign control limits”

In a blog post “Government Overturns CRTC Giving Globalive The Go-Ahead” by University of Ottawa’s Professor Michael Geist, he picked two specific paragraphs in the government of Canada’s “Order-in-Council” (PDF) and his reading and analysis is this (emphasis added),

“These paragraphs signal the prioritization of enhanced competition in the marketplace.  With support for foreign investment, the removal of foreign control limits may not be far behind.“

Tony reiterated the importance of the foreign control limits and Globalive is a Canadian company as he had said to other media outlets. You can listen to his answer in the audio interview.

* Telus’ Twitter comment

I asked for Tony’s comment to the following tweet by Michael Hennessy, Senior VP, Regulatory and Government Affairs, Telus

“If Wind is canadian then so was King Tut [...]“

and my light-hearted reply to Michael,

“Merry Christmas Michael. My Christmas comes early today! [...]“

I will let you hear what Tony said in response to the above tweets in the audio interview. :)

* Few other questions & answers

Tony also indicated that WIND Mobile is a startup company, the network is brand new, and stated that “there is no question that we are going to make mistakes and it is not going to be perfect.” But Tony emphasized their main differences with the incumbents likes of Bell/Telus/Rogers is that WIND Mobile is going to keep listening to customers, “We need feedback on WINDMobile.ca … so we can constantly improve the offering”.

I’ve asked a few other questions which you can listen to the Q&As in my interview with Tony (mp3 download) or streaming audio here.

*******

Only time will tell if WIND Mobile can deliver on their promises. The first things we will see are the pricing and service plans. And then the customers will have a chance to give their feedback on the call qualities and internet surfing experiences, etc. Later, we will see if Canadians will get new phone offerings like the iPhones and Androids “soon” as promised. I hope WIND will keep its promises and truly listen to its customers’ feedback and suggestions.

Globalive decision Tony Lacavera Tony Clement on BNN

After the government of Canada ground breaking (but part-expected) decision of letting Globalive to launch WIND Mobile in Canada, Globalive CEO Tony Lacavera, Industry Minister Tony Clement, and other experts appeared on BNN.

Here is a link to my interview with Tony Lacavera (include mp3 audio) last year. I’ve requested an interview with Tony through the company’s media relations contacts.

Dec 12 Update: The nice people from WIND Mobile’s PR firm have gotten back to me today. I hope to talk to Tony coming Monday. Will see. I will post my interview afterwards. Stay tune.

Dec 13 Update: Good news. Did an interview with Tony this afternoon. And after spending a few hours cleaning up the audio mp3 and writing the blog entry, I’ve finally finished the article and audio and you can read and listen to the interview here.

Dec 17 Update: New blog entry, “WIND Mobile launch review & details (More details on Plans, Handsets, Prices. – Simple Plans: Chat $15, Always Talk $35, Always Shout $45/mo)“

Video of new “24″ CTU office (Jack Bauer, season 8)

Video of new “24″ CTU office (Jack Bauer, season 8)

My Christmas comes early! – Globalive allowed to enter Canadian cellphone market

CBC is reporting this morning that “My Christmas/New Year wish: WINDmobile in Canada” has come true! Here is a news excerpt (emphasis added),

“The federal government has overruled a CRTC decision on the ownership structure of Toronto-based Globalive, opening the door for the wireless company to set up shop as Canada’s fourth national cellphone company.

Industry Minister Tony Clement said Friday he was overturning the ruling by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in October that the company did not meet Canadian ownership and control requirements.

Clement said that this decision would allow Globalive to set up shop “effective immediately” and would not require the company to make any changes to its ownership structure.”

From National Post (emphasis added),

“The decision is expected to be a blow to the big three wireless providers — Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., and Telus Corp. — as they fought to keep Globalive out of the Canadian market.

Under the federal Telecommunications Act, the federal cabinet has the power to vary CRTC decisions. Mr. Clement said he is satisfied the debt financing provided by Orascom does not constitute foreign control and no changes would be required to the company’s organization. “We are satisfied that in this particular case [Globalive's] board of directors cannot be controlled by the foreign investor.”“

Wow, this year my Christmas comes early!

Go WINDMobile Go! You can find a list of WIND Mobile locations at the end of this post. A Twitpic of standing ovation for @WIND_Ken and Tony @globalive at the media event.

See this gov of Canada decision (Order-in-Council PDF) and a blog post by Michael Geist (I also hope the foreign control limit in the telecom industry will be removed soon). The provocative Henry Mintzberg, Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies, McGill University, once said in an MIT Talk “The thing I always thought of Canada — it is one country that works remarkably well in practice but doesn’t work at all in theory.” and the current Globalive case is one of those example of “work well in practice”.

Check out this WINDMobile ad! No more Hot Dog fee!

Dec 23rd update: Here is CBC report on Globalive/WIND Mobile on Dec 11st.

And CTV report.

Live from “24″ (Jack Bauer, season 8)

Click to read article and view “live” video recorded earlier.

Here is a CNet review of the app, “Ustream app streams live video from your iPhone“. Wow, I just realized this app was just launched yesterday by Ustream.

Interview with Alice Schroeder, author of “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life”

Here is a link to Jeff Matthews’ insightful and enjoyable to read interview with Alice Schroeder, author of “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life“.

Here is an excerpt of one particular telling Q&A,

JM: You wrote extensively—I’d guess too extensively for most Buffettologists, not to mention for Buffett himself, if the rumors are true—of his personal life. In fact, you named his first wife’s lover. Having been a Wall Street analyst and having written a book about Warren Buffett, I know it is not easy to write something unflattering about a person you both like and admire.

How hard was it to physically put those words down in a book that would be read by WB, not to mention his best friends and family?

Also, where did the worst reaction come from, and do you think you could have or should have done anything differently?

AS: It’s strange that this is a controversy. A biography includes the details of the personal relationships that influenced the breakdown of the subject’s marriage. That goes without saying. You can’t really understand Warren Buffett without this information.

And of course I didn’t want to hurt Warren. I care about him as a human being. It was hard to know that he was going to be hurt and that I would be the instrument of his pain. But let us turn this around a bit.

Warren knew my work as an analyst. He knew that I was dogged about research and that I had a history of writing things that were true even if they upset people. He chose me for this project anyway. He may have thought, who knows what. That in exchange for such complete cooperation, I would owe him the loyalty of writing the version he wanted. As many people would. Nonetheless, he knew what he was getting when he chose me. That was not an accident.

He immediately began shoveling biographical material of an intensely personal nature at me. Until that point I had no idea of the situation I was walking into. Once I started to understand, it became my responsibility to do corroborative research. The choice was to tell the truth, which would hurt Warren, anger other people, and expose me to vindictiveness, or to lie, which would violate the reader’s trust and my integrity. I had to work myself up over and over to find the courage to tell the truth.

Apple Kicks Out Chinese App Developer

WSJ Blogs,

“An Apple spokeswoman says it removed Molinker from the App Store “for falsifying product reviews and violating the terms of the iPhone Developer Agreement.” Efforts to reach Molinker for comment were unsuccessful.”

[via Julia]

Economics Nobel Prize Lectures 2009

2009 Nobel Prize Lectures by Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson.

Historical Chinese Pawnshop org chart and photos

More Macau pawnshop photos here.

Kevin Roberts on Fox Business

In Fox Business this morning (video), Kevin Roberts, CEO worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi, talked about “the ongoing impact of the recession on advertisers and society, the importance of priceless value and the creation of loyalty beyond reason, the opportunities for creating intimacy and conversations through screens, and even played a word association game“.

ACTA-Tag by Industry Minister Tony Clement

Have a listen to the latest TVO Search Engine episode (mp3). Here is the show description.

“Industry Minister Tony Clement won’t talk about the secrets of ACTA. Instead, he’s pointed curious critics to Michael Geist’s website. This week, Michael explains why he’s the wrong man for that job.”

“One-Way Contracts” Omri Ben-Shahar, University of Chicago Law School

Interesting talk “One-Way Contracts” by Prof. Omri Ben-Shahar, University of Chicago Law School. Here is the description along with the posted video at U of Chicago,

What if consumer contracts were legally enforceable only against the consumers, but not against the business? The idea of “one-way contracts,” to which consumers are bound but the businesses are not, is offered as a basis to explore alternative, non-legal consumer protections. Despite weakening legal protections of consumers, the one-way contracts regime has the potential to improve consumers’ well being. In fact, in many area consumer contracts are already disguised “one-way contracts.” The conclusion is that the focus among consumer protection advocates on enhancing access to, and the scope of, legal remedies may be misguided.

WIND Mobile | Random Acts of Kindness | Hot Dog Fees

After CRTC said “no” to WIND Mobile last month, I am now eagerly awaiting the Harper cabinet to make the right decision to say “yes” to WIND Mobile.

We need more competitions in the wireless industry in Canada which has been dominated by the telecom giants for far too long.

Here is a video of the WIND Mobile team doing some “Random Acts of Kindness”.

Here is a funny ad, “Hot Dog Fees”.

You can follow their twitter here.

Lawrence Lessig’s Last Speech on Free Culture

Just finished watching RiP : A remix manifesto (a film from NFB), a documentary film made with open source and remixed work about copyright and remix culture.

The RiP DVD has a copy of speech that is available online and I highly recommend, Lawrence Lessig’s Last Speech on Free Culture (delivered in 2008).

CBC Dragons’ Den entrepreneur & inventor Ben Gulak (Uno bike) update & interview

Few days ago, I conducted an exclusive interview with 2008 Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Ben Gulak from Milton, ONT where Ben gave an update of what happened after his 2008 TV pitch and shared some latest info happened after the Nov 11th, 2009 CBC Dragons’ Den update show.

Read and watch the interview video here.

Professor Steven N S Cheung on Ronald Coase

Have a read of Professor Steven N S Cheung’s piece – “Ronald Coase: My Once and Future Mentor“. Thanks to Gary for posting it.

Finalizing DVD for Lovers – 2009 People’s Choice Award (Calgary International Film Festival)

I met and interviewed the lovely May Charters & Mark Hug this year when their feature film “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” came to the Calgary International Film Festival and won the 2009 People’s Choice Award.

Now they are finalizing the DVD for Lovers in a Dangerous Time. Good luck and all the best May and Mark. Here is a cool time lapse video of them finalizing the DVD.

(See my examiner.com report here.)

Remembering fourteen women massacred in Montreal in 1989

CBC report (with two videos “Montreal Massacre memorial” and “On the killer’s list“)

“Ceremonies were held in Montreal and across the country Sunday to mark the 20th anniversary of Canada’s worst mass shooting.

Fourteen women died when shooter Marc Lépine staged his attack at Montreal’s École Polytechnique on Dec. 6, 1989.”

Carol Shields and The Stone Diaries: Insights from New York Public Library

An examiner.com article, “Carol Shields and The Stone Diaries: Insights from New York Public Library“.

2009 Coase Conference Day 2 photos (with Ronald Coase)

Here are some 2009 Coase Conference Day 2 photos.

The first one is a photo of Ronald Coase and Gary Becker.

Photo credits: Thanks to Zhaofeng Xue (薛兆丰).