The non conformer's Canadian Weblog

February 1, 2010

Apple vs Google, Adobe

 

Once sworn friends and now sworn enemies..  First Google announced their Android mobile software (direct threat to the iPhone), then GOOG announced a new web browser (direct threat to Safari), then a shocking announcement of a new Chrome operating system (direct threat to OS X), then came a rejection of Google Voice from the iPhone app store, and finally the resignation of Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Apple’s board.  Obviously Android has tremendous appeal. It is an open operating system with third party application development without Apple’s tightly monitored app approval process. Plus, Android’s ability to operate many mobile devices will be a direct threat to Apple’s mobile market share. App developers could simply grow weary of Apple’s obsessive regulations and start coding for a different platform. That is entirely possible with some of the iPhone’s app stores many developer problems.  http://dandriffill.com/2009/08/19/apple-vs-google/

As usual Apple likes to convey the image it is number one, even if it is clearly not, it is number one in certain limited  areas only, MS computers still rule the waves.. so does Google 

Google music services compete with I tunes. So does Google android phones, Google chrome browser, Googles you tube all commpete with Apple, and Google Chrome OS is a viable alternative to Mac OS.. Google seemed to have  to realized now  it does not need Apple realtionships at all ..

and so now Apple chief Steve Jobs has lately come out swinging , reacting to the release of Google’s Nexus One, which has apparently angered him by being now fairly cool, and by actually having a decent reception – unlike a certain apple iPad. Google  “They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them. This don’t be evil crap: It’s bullshit.” yeah and ‘How dare someone else try and sell a phone'” especialy a very decent one . https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/the-best-iphone-to-buy-or-to-use/

Flash has all the advantages any entrenched technology enjoys and remains the standard multimedia language for a vast majority of developers and programmers. The new iPad would not display videos, animations or any other features created using Flash, a type of multimedia software made by Adobe. Flash is one of the world’s most prolific  applications, appearing on 98 percent of all computers. YouTube videos run on it. It is what animates millions of graphics and advertisements on Web sites around the world. Adobe says the technology supports nearly 75 percent of video on the Web and 70 percent of online gaming sites.  Flash would not be used on the iPhone. Apple has argued that the Flash technology is too slow and unduly taxes laptops and netbooks. The company also has concerns over Flash’s vulnerability to viruses and other malware, as well as the way Flash-based content can voraciously consume battery life.. but what about the real monetary concerns? Adobe, said Apple’s opposition was a way for the Apple gouging company to control its iTunes system. “I think it’s pretty clear that Apple wants to regain control of the content consumers see online and the content Apple offers for their devices,” Many persons also do maintain  it is impossible for Apple to maintain a walled garden around the content and advertising people consume on the iPad.  The same  Jobs once again threw  a couple of insults against Adove too. “They (Adobe) have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy”, he is reported as saying. “Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash”. Sadly there are constant updates required for Adobe flash, which do slow down your computer if you do not install them too..

January 11, 2010

the best iphone to buy or to use?

 
 
Wish you had an easy way to find out whether there’s a coffee shop or an Apple store nearby?Well, if you’re using an iPhone or an Android cell phone, now you can open up a google.com window in the browser to find out. Google Inc.  announced “Near Me Now“, a local mobile app that can display search results on mobile phones that show the locations of nearby businesses.Last November, Google announced Google Latitude, an upgrade to Google Maps that finds the location of friends’ residences. The Google Latitude tool lets users contact friends via SMS, Google Talk or Gmail.
 
Meanwhile Microsoft has released a new version of Windows Live for Windows phones running Windows Mobile Professional and Standard operating systems. This new version   brings lots of new changes which includes new and improved UI which is finger friendly, Bing search bar, complete integration of Windows Live Home and lots more and so far the experience has been quite satisfying to some.
 
Google Android is a brand new operating system that has been developed  to run on the next generation of smartphones.  Google has chosen to support the Android OS with a place where you can get a whole host of third-party tools and apps.The Google  Android has been developed to be scaling. This means the interface will be able to support a wide range of screen sizes, both in portrait and landscape. It also means that 3D graphics are supported, as long as there is hardware acceleration built into the backend of the devices. This all boils down to being able to deliver content,  a great online experience. So, whether it’s video, webcams, news feeds, or simply email or getting the football results, the platform is based around delivering it as smoothly as possible. Also the Android is capable of supporting the most common forms of communication.  Android is very much an open platform, as it allows developers to quickly and easily create applications that plug seamlessly in with Google’s other services. Android Market , a place where users and developers can swap and share ideas and apps and also an easy way to get new applications onto your device??
 
21 Best Google Android Applications  http://www.technobuzz.net/21-best-google-android-applications/  
 
50 Best Google Android Applications- Lifestyle and Applications http://androinica.com/2009/08/31/50-best-android-apps-lifestyle-and-productivity-apps-1-15/

” Nexus One rivals the Motorola Droid as the premier Android device of the iphone moment”?  Nexus One is a direct challenge to Apple’s hugely successful iPhone, which, despite being over 3 years old, still cannot support multitasking. In fact, users of Android-based devices can do lots of things on their Android handsets that they are unable to do on an iPhone: say, for example running applications in the background, allowing them to get instant alerts whenever a friend updates their Facebook page or Twitter profile; listening to music on  while writing an email; and threading conversations by person etc. Nexus One also provides of higher memory speed (512MB RAM) than iPhone (256MB RAM), better WiFi support and it comes with a microUSB port. Nexus One’s browser will support Javascript and Flash-based webpages but iPhone browser does not. Nexus One offers a larger screen (a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen with 800×480 pixel resolution display and better camera , while iPhone includes 3.5-inch capacitive multitouch screen with 480×320 pixel resolution display). Additionally, unlike iPhone which offers internal storage, Nexus One has a microSD card slot (expandable up to 32GB and will ship with 4GB card). http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/can-google-nexus-one-beat-iphone/

” I’ve used an iPhone every day of my life since it first came out in addition to every BlackBerry ever available simultaneously, and I actually had an open mind about the Nexus One possibly replacing my iPhone.” I felt like maybe I wanted more “freedom” and “flexibility” and not have to deal with Apple’s ridiculous ecosystem. “But in the end, I found that the lack of any meaningful applications for Android really made it a no go from the beginning. I’m talking about quality — re-read the word quality — applications, here. The best VNC and RDP applications on Android are a joke. There’s not a single enjoyable Twitter application, and any application that’s on Android that is available on the iPhone pales in comparison.  BlackBerry’s email application is flawless. Apple’s web browser is flawless. But there’s not a single application on Android that doesn’t have carbon spots in it.” “There are/were a lot of things I could list that are missing with the iPhone OS for my own personal uses also, but the iPhone platform has obviously had much time to mature since it’s inception, certainly more time than Android. Android has made good strides in the short time it has been in the market, and it obviously isn’t going to shut down anytime soon, ” ” I like Android better than my old iPhone 3G. Maybe because I don’t know (or care) about the inner workings of the OS and maybe all of the potholes it has in it. I love my Droid, I feel more attached to it than I ever did an iPhone or Blackberry.” ” Google isn’t out to beat the iPhone with this phone, it’s out to outsell the iPhone with the Android platform. Google’s just trying to shine light on one of the iPhone weakness (AT&T)  and make sure anyone who wants a quality Android phone can get one that they can use with any carrier.”

 Remember when WordPerfect word Processor was king, or Corel Draw the graphics software and where are they today? and why did they next lose their number one status, appeal, no longer an industry standard? Or why did MS IBM personal computer out beat all of it’s rivals, the Commodore, Apple, etc? When selecting an iphone you need to take some serious considerations. Price, availability, overall costs, available software applications and not just the name brand now are important.

When T-Mobile launched the very first Android-powered handset – the G1 – back in 2008, the app library to go along with it looked like a minimart beside Apple’s Walmart. But the past few months have been kind to Google. The recent release of several new high-profile Androids handsets like the Motorola Droid, HTC Hero and Motorola Cliq have turned that initial drizzle of apps into a torrent. Now with over 10,000 apps and counting, Google’s Android Marketplace offers applications for just about everything – sometimes making it difficult to choose.  http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/the-best-google-android-apps/

Any iphone is still dependent on the telecommunication provider too, who still tend to lie as to how reliable they now are too.. Now many persons still are complaining about their iPhone service. “This is the thing that kills me. Here we are with the technology of the future and I can’t even use my phone,” The data problems compound complaints  where  users are complaining of network failure and the inability to send Internet data from their iPhones at times. A spokesman for US  AT&T, which provides service exclusively for the iPhone, said the large numbers of people using smartphones at CES clogged up the network. “ Reminds me many users have the same problem with their ISP such as with Bell when they try to use their internet access during peak times.With some rather shoddy customer service feedback https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/about-time-big-3-put-into-their-place-bell-rogers-and-telus/

BIG AL’S  I like the little blurb about the BC mom warning about the changes to her plan from the time she signed the 3 year contract. I have had similar problems with BELL. As far as I am concerned, the contract should be null and void, but the fine print allows them to do it.

 

 Choosing the right carrier is about getting the service you need, and one that’s not only right for you but works for you, and ‘works’ is the key word here. I personally am on my third cellphone service carrier or provider, on my third try I’ve finally found one where I can get a call while I’m in my house. So it’s really trial and error as to coverage of cellphone providers, unless of course you wish to pay roaming fees. Companies do offer coverage maps to indicate coverage area of their service but these aren’t exactly accurate, and honestly it’s just a marketing ploy, providers are not going to tell you that you might not have great service in your area, they’re basically just saying that there is service there, be it good or bad. Companies today usually lock you into a contract for a certain amount of time, be it one year or two, yes there are some that allow month to month service but in the long run they are usually more expensive overall. The problem with these contracts is the early termination fees, most companies charge you a fee plus a certain percentage of your contract if you wish to leave them before your contract expires. From experience I also have found that cellphone providers will not tell you when your contract has expired so you can find another provider if you wish or need to, they’ll just let you go on paying for service on a month to month basis after your contract has expired. My advice about this is not to believe the company, after all all they really want your money, the best thing to do is talk to people and look around for other customer experiences with the providers in your area to see who may have the best coverage that’s right for you.http://www.testfreaks.com/cellphones/#prod_read_more_categorydesc

Unlike free online tools options like www.cellplanexpert.ca , www.cellphones.ca  and www.comparecellular.ca , which let users input how they’re expecting to use their phone and then spit out a list of comparative rates, Save Cell will actually negotiate the deal for you, making the necessary changes to your account at the same time. Related: A guide to Canada’s phone plans Get out of your contract early? You can do it, but you’ll have to pay an early termination fee of as much as $400. Phone companies maintain these contracts are used to recover the costs of delivering phones at discounted rates and they protect them feverishly. But shrewd negotiating can sometimes pay off, particularly if you’re leaving the country altogether. More often than not, the company will try to steer you into a new calling plan rather than see you go, Chadwick warns, “but there’s not much wiggle room on contracts if you’re really determined to leave.”  http://money.ca.msn.com/retirement/gordonpowers/article.aspx?cp-documentid=23137743

 
 
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/buyer-beware-beware/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/bells-lies-vs-reality-again/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/the-new-still-sad-unacceptable-reality/
 
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/commissioner-for-complaints-for-telecommunications-services/  
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/basic-contract-law/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/crtc-farcical-hearings-on-internet-speed-control/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/public-mobile-files-suit-against-globalive-decision-supported-by-bell-rogers-telus-too/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/phone-companies-internet-at-disadvantage/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/bells-lies-vs-reality-again/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/i-cannot-trust-you-for-you-lie-to-me-all-the-time/

November 10, 2009

Iphone, Palm Phone Rush

cell phone cartoons

It seems Canada’s iphone providers are a typical step backwards again.. In a rush to make money, while screwing consumers too often, they do  selll   inadeqate objects or those too quickly outdated..  toohttps://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/buyer-beware-beware/
 
 Rogers officially releases Dell Streak for $149.99 next on 3-year Rogers states that this product is “Designed with the future in mind, the Dell Streak will support over-the-air updates including Android platform upgrades, Adobe Flash 10.1, video chat applications enhancements and other software innovations.” The Streak comes with Android OS 1.6 but will be upgraded to 2.1 (no talks of upgrades past this yet).It’s a disservice to customers to sell something like this to customers that may not be informed enough to know better. No word on the actual actual upgrade date, is insane. I wouldn’t touch this device with the outdated Anroid and no confirmed update date. Don’t buy it until you see Android 2.2 on it. Android 2.1 doesn’t support Adobe Flash. Sony Ericsson has a hard time moving from Android 1.6 to 2.1.Here is the link: http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/products/2010/09/23/update-on-updates/ 

 Does it also mean  (1) Rogers is the exclusive seller of this device in Canada; or (2) a person using this device will not be able to roam onto other networks such Bell, Telus or any carrier outside Canada (e.g. AT&T, Vodafone, etc.). It is SIM locked to Rogers?there is no way to switch to another provider.Canadian carriers are bot required to provide the unlock code upon request?  In Canada, there are no laws regulating SIM locking or unlocking.  The  consumer advocates say all carriers are inserting locks for no other reason than to keep customers from switching. Most carriers charge $20 for each month remaining on a contract, and more if the customer has a data plan, so a subscriber who cancels a two-year plan after only one year would be on the hook for at least $240. Locked phones also force consumers to pay their carrier’s often-hefty roaming fees when travelling internationally. With an unlocked phone, the owner can buy a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card from a local carrier for a small fee and make much cheaper calls wherever they may be.  The big 4 are still screwing the consumer  It is time to unlock the phones and let providers compete on a level playing field for the provision of service. Unlocking phones will also allow many companies that don’t offer telecommunication services to sell phones – that means downward pressure on the price of phones and phones that are current. The teleco skullduggery has got to be stopped. Unlocking phones is a start.

Canadians can still unlock their phone through several methods, such as independent phone dealers found in many malls, but it often incurs an additional charge and voids the warranty on the device. Doing so is  Competition in the wireless industry is heating up with the recent launch of several new carriers, but critics say Canadians are still facing at least one big barrier to choice — locked phones — and a new copyright bill expected to be introduced this week could make matters worse. Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/05/31/copyright-cellphone-locks.html#ixzz14uCT7obZ

https://sites.google.com/site/euprepaidcallingcardssims/mobile-manufacturers/box-breaking/sim-lock

Unlocked iPhones Could Herald True Mobility  http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5144/135/

Many US or Canadian based cell phones do not work at all in China.or elswhere too?  If you  have confirmed that your cell phone will work in China, you can either decide to keep the current SIM card with your provider in the phone and pay the extremely high rates that North American providers charge to use their service in China or, you can swap out their SIM cards and use a local Chinese one and literally spend pennies as opposed to dollars. SIM cards for China are easy and inexpensive to find and purchase in China but, please note that there are many types available for purchase. Not all will allow you to place international calls. You may also purchase them online. There are several US vendors, including www.cellularabroad.com and http://www.amazon.com that offer SIM cardshttp://www.chinatoday.com/travel/china_travel_guide/cell_phone_service_advise_for_china.htm

GOOGLE’S Android mobile operating system has surged past Apple’s iPhone and Canada’s Blackberry in the third quarter to become the world’s second biggest smartphone platform. Finland’s Nokia sold 29.5 million smartphones during the third quarter of the year for a 36.6 per cent share of the worldwide market, down from 44.6 per cent a year ago. Sales of Android-powered smartphones soared to 20.5 million units, giving the Android platform a 25.5 per cent market share, up from just 3.5 per cent a year ago. Apple’s iPhone was next on sales of 13.5 million units for a 16.7 per cent market share, down from 17.1 per cent a year ago. Canada’s Research In Motion, maker of the Blackberry, was in fourth position with sales of 11.9 million units. Its market share dropped to 14.8 per cent from 20.7 per cent a year ago. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile saw sales of 2.2 million units giving it a 2.8 per cent market share, down from 7.9 per cent a year ago, worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 417 million units in the third quarter, up 35 per cent from a year ago. Smartphone sales grew 96 per cent to 81 million units and accounted for 19.3 per cent of overall mobile phone sales in the quarter.  

 

The lying spin doctors at  the news media, Canada’s major telecommunications firms are busy working too .. Bell also does not discriminate, show partiality, it seems ready to abuse anyone.. Competition between Telus, Bell and Rogers, which control about 90 per cent of Canada’s wireless market, intensified when Bell and Telus upgraded their wireless networks, enabling them to sell Apple’s coveted iPhone for the first time earlier this month. Network speed doesn’t matter to regular cell phone or internet  users,   because it makes no difference for voice usage, but it becomes crucial to the smartphone experience when using bandwidth intensive programs, and for persons who  like to view, download multimedia on the net..
 
On top of that many people have rushed to get a  cell phone and have tied themselves now  to a long term telecommunication provider contract while meanwhile very significant consumer features, new application usages have evolved..  and these thus have made their phones obsolete very quickly. Now  being able to listen to music while browsing the web and sending email makes a multi-tasking Smartphone an appealing option, plus the ability to watch videos online as well. A cell phone’s integration with popular and widespread Google apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Voice will help with its popularity.
 
 
Advertised speed is now again at the centre of a legal dispute between two of the country’s largest cell phone providers. Rogers and Telus. Telus Communications Inc. launched a lawsuit against Rogers Communications Inc. in British Columbia’s Supreme Court over Rogers advertisements that claimed its wireless network is the “fastest” and the “most reliable” in Canada. Rogers claims  its mobile network indeed provided faster data speeds than those of its competitors, Telus and BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada. Actually the  data speed are not consistent from day one now too and many customers have complained they do not continual recipe the expected, advertised speeds.  Telus says   its new network offered speeds as fast as those provided by Rogers  in areas available. Rogers’ advertising also  gives consumers the impression that its network provides better call clarity, fewer dropped calls and more reliable data transmission  and even all that is questionable from any communication firm now  too. 
 
 
Phone customers in  parts of Ontario were  feeling frustrated after several hours of disrupted phone service, according to the Canadian Press new service.  Some phone calls  were dropped during the day. Because the outage was the result of a problem at Telus Corp..  Rogers said it has internal and third party external audit since 2007 as proof that it is the most reliable network. Rogers added Telus lack data on its network performance.
 
“Rogers has no network advantage and shouldn’t be misleading the Canadian populace with “false superiority claims?” or any of the Canadian firms now still too.. One can read about  loads of customers dissatisfaction about Rogers, Telus, Bell posted on the net now already too.  Rogers Wireless was   disputing a Bell Canada ad claiming Bell has the “the fastest … network across North America early in the year.” The ASC found the claim to be false, but Bell Canada ignored the ruling and continued to run the advertisement, because they don’t recognize the organization as legitimate. …it seems I only hear bad things about Bell Canada. Are they really that bad?  Worse. Plus they offer less and charge more. If I’m not mistaken they are also the most expensive for anything (internet,phone etc)if your not on a contract.”
 
Our monopolistic Canadian wireless carriers are engaging in a war of words over even false words over speeds, reliable, etc., Telus. Rogers, Bell spin doctors all unrealistically say they expect to make loads more money gouging the customers with extra fees.. Dream on. Canadians are known to be cheap for a start eveben. Telus.   B.C.’s largest private corporation, now has a “long-term evolution” network that will maybe provides a true global standard in five to six years while others already offer compatibility all over the world .   A prolonged recession combined with higher up-front costs for new smart phones has forced Telus Corp. to cut its overall financial outlook for the fiscal year even as it faces greater competition    Combined with upfront costs Telus and the others too  must pay Apple and other handset makers such as Research In Motion Ltd. for devices means earnings for the year will be lower than expected, Telus said.  Canadian carriers pay as much as $400 per iPhone with the hope that subscribers will surf the web, pushing up data revenues. Not a very realistic hope. When Consumers are already money conscious, because of the present recession.
 
Rogers Communications Inc.,  has been the market leader in wireless in Canada for years – in part because it was the only carrier to offer HSPA, favoured by handset makers like Apple Inc. The adds also do say “Telus and Bell went live with their next-generation 3G wireless network last week, delivering high-speed Internet service that’s up to four times faster than home service delivered by wires.”  Telus has spent hundreds of millions of dollars overlaying its existing cellphone network with high-speed packet access (HSPA) technology in partnership with Bell Canada, The massive 1.1-million-square-kilometre network extends across British Columbia, Alberta and eastern Canada now.   This  wireless service is available through an Internet stick that goes in a port on any laptop computer, and network speed of 21 megabytes per second that is fast enough to download and view high-resolution video, there is a COST ASSOCIATED WITH UT STILL TOO..   Now that Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility have a joint sleek new wireless network, they have to contend with headaches that had been a concern only to their rival, Rogers Wireless, burdens, like “grey market” unlocked phones and data roaming, The Bell,  Telus  network reaches also across the two western provinces and into Canada’s major urban centres but still does not cover all of Canada.. Telus/Bell HSPA+ network misses almost 2 complete provinces and northwestern Ontario for any coverage, and does not allow in country GSM roaming.across the two western provinces and into Canada’s major urban centres but still does not cover all of Canada..
 
Telus sues Rogers over advertised claims    Telus Communications Co. is suing Rogers Communications Inc., claiming Rogers no longer has the right to call itself “Canada’s most reliable” or “Canada’s fastest” network.  So if Rogers wants to continue with this claim, they should cover all of Canada and all their customers. Not just the ones that happen to live in a major city centre. Nationwide coverage??? Not even close.    I currently have Telus “high speed” Internet service. On numerous occasions, this Telus service has been slower than my old 56K dial-up service. That is why I am canceling my Telus service as of next week and going with the competition (just to see if they are any better).   Telus is in no position to be taking legal action based on Rogers engaging in misleading advertising. Telus does it too, with its advertised claims of high speed internet access. If Telus is advertising high-speed Internet service, it should be high speed 24/7, and not just when the network is not busy.   And this is not just my computer or modem being slow, as I have had numerous others tell me that their Telus “high speed” Internet service is very slow at times.   A perfect example of the pot calling the kettle black   Just another couple of corporate crybabies looking to gouge the customer.  http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/11/18/bc-telus-rogers-lawsuit.html

Misleading facts , costs or hidden costs already too. Rogers scrapped its unpopular ‘System Access Fee’ earlier this year, but replaced it with a Government Regulatory Recovery Fee, and increased the price of some cell phone plans. “I suppose that they hoped by putting ‘Government’ in the title that people would assume the fee is legitimate,” quipped Virgin Group Chairman, Richard Branson and   “Bell, which owns 100% of Virgin, is the only carrier still charging a system access fee for new customers.” As for the Government Regulatory Recovery Fee, Rogers says it covers “provincial 911 fees, spectrum acquisition, licensing charges, and contribution charges to help subsidize telephone service in rural and remote areas.” It is about half the cost of the old System Access Fee, which is still charged by Bell Mobility (but not Virgin).

False misleading advertising has long time been made by Telus, Rogers, Bell and others in Canada whole the Ostrich federal consumer dperantmt, government did nothing.. I even wrote to you about THIS ISSUE  too and what it takes the courts to deal with everything now, AND so why do we need the  government ?

AND ANYONE WHO HAS TRIED TO DEAL WITH BELL SERVICE, COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT KNOWS HOW OBSTINATE, STONE WALLING, UNHELPFUL THEY MOSTLY CAN BE TOO..

It is an established, undeniable fact that at least 40 percent off Bell’s present, past customers have  been dissatisfied with the actual customer support they have received in Canada relating to cell phones, internet services, billings, etc. That is why many of them have gone elsewhere even to Videotron, Acanac, etc.  https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/bells-lies-vs-reality-again/

  
see also
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/buyer-beware-beware/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/skype/
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/the-new-still-sad-unacceptable-reality/
 
 
 Many can see clearly that Rogers, Bell, Videotron, Shaw, Telus all only care about one thing.. maximum profits.. motivated by maximum greed..  mostly finding an excuse to charge the customer even for more.. and yes that they have done with their lies, distortions … and no one cares about integrity or  the citizens, consumer, the CRTC or the governments now included. 
  
Public exposure and prosecution of the guilty persons seems to be most effective way that works for everyone’s benefit in dealing with the bad acts of others still.

August 7, 2009

Bell, BCE own profitability..

  

The departure of Nortel Networks Corp.’s CEO, a once proud flagship of Bell,  and most of its board marks the effective end of the 124-year-old company. But the remarkable aspect is that Nortel lasted as long as it did, given its rapid descent from national hero to national disgrace.  “I knew when I joined the board it was high-risk,” said Harry Pearce, who stepped down as chairman Monday after four years as a Nortel director. The litigation lawyer – a former chairman of Hughes Electronics and a former vice-chairman of General Motors – said he was under no illusions when he came on board in January, 2005, after a major accounting scandal had pushed Nortel close to the brink.  “Pearce an ex-General Motors executive – there you go, Nortel hired a blind man to lead the blind. And Nortel’s failure is not due to external factors as he states (poor economy, meltdown in capital markets, blah, blah, blah), rather it was p$$$ poor management, fraudulent accounting, etc. I don’t see any of Nortel’s competitors having problems staying afloat, in fact they all seem to be prospering in these trying times.”  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/ambition-gave-way-to-a-harsh-reality-pearce-zafirovski/article1246625/

computer-hack2

“During the dot.com rush, senior BCE management embarked on a scheme to turn the company into a multi-media, converged entity. To do this they stripped Bell Canada – the telephone company – of people and used revenue formewrly used to upgrade the network, to buy the Globe and Mail and the CTV television network. They failed to support the infrastructure to compete with the cable companies. But the dazzle in their eyes was caused by the almost mythical idea of multi-media empires delivering content to homes throughout North America on phone lines. It was a great idea except they forgot they were still running a phone company and that the infrastructure needed to be upgraded FIRST. It was like putting a $50,000 bathroom in a house with old windows and a leaking roof. Today, Bell has a patchwork network, with the best service in the major urban centres (high-speed internet and cell coverage), while smaller markets make do with less. Bell has been bleeding hundreds of thousands of customers for several years, service has fallen and, as I mentioned, it is patchwork quality, depending on where you live.  In the corporate boardrooms incompetence seems to pay. Jean Monty, former CEO, raked in millions when he left in shame, and I can hardly wait to see Sabia’s nice little package when he turns the lights out.”  http://wordylefty.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/the-ugly-demise-of-bell-canada-june-26-2007/
 
It seems that Bell, BCE continually now faces bad news about it’s own profitability..
  
Needless to say greedy Bell and the others had expected to gouge all if it’s customers, old and new  forever as well but things rarely go as expected especially for Bell for the customers are not stupid. Bell’s promises of future revenue increases  and improved great services based on their past performances to date also are not valid, reliable. It seems the Zebra too still cannot change it’s stripes. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/recessionary-dip-or-permanent-decline/article1244199/
 
bell-internet-isp2

Canada’s largest wireless companies are now clearly wrestling with their first real decline in smart  phones customers’ monthly spending, and wondering if it is a sign of the times or a harbinger of the future. “The companies have spent billions to deploy networks and are stocked with fashionable smart phones. But even as Canadians snap up the latest handsets and sign three-year data contracts, operators are seeing average revenue from each customer fall. Is the drop a result of the recession, or does it reflect the more competitive landscape that is about to see even more players enter the field? BCE’s Bell Canada said yesterday that it generated 4 per cent less money on average from its wireless customers in the last quarter, compared with a year earlier.That follows similar news last week from rival Rogers Communications Inc. , which reported a drop of more than 2 per cent. Today. The downward trend of what the industry calls ARPU – for average revenue per user – is significant for Bell, Rogers and Telus because they rely on wireless as their engine for growth.  As part of its second-quarter financial report, the company said it signed 45,000 new wireless customers in the period, compared with 83,000 in the second quarter of 2008. In addition to the fewer new accounts, Bell said ARPU fell $2.22, to $52.05 a month. Both results fell short of analysts’ expectations and crimped BCE’s overall performance, with profit dipping 4 per cent and sales down 2 per cent. “People are actually using the product less in the economy, from a voice perspective,”  “A decline in employment means a declining use in wireless and we are seeing that. BCE executives agree that tougher competition, especially among their discount brands, is a factor. But they say it is being offset by customers’ adoption of new data services, which generated 28 per cent more revenue in the quarter from a year earlier.  A key step involves cutting costs, which BCE has done by eliminating several thousand jobs over the past year. Executives said it has also improved quality of service, eliminating many customer calls. General and administrative expenses were down 11 per cent in the quarter, which helped bump gross margins up to 40 per cent. Other steps include the recent purchase of the 50 per cent of Virgin Mobile Canada Bell didn’t already own; the acquisition of electronics retailer The Source and its 750 stores nationwide;  and a more aggressive branding campaign. In addition, the company is building a new national wireless network on the leading wireless standard of the day, called HSPA. Bell is sharing the development costs with Telus and both companies   expect  to launch service on it by year-end.  Bell TV turned in the best performance of the quarter, with video revenue rising 9 per cent to $389-million.

Meanwhile , Bell Canada is taking the federal broadcast regulator to court to stop the country’s big networks from charging cable and satellite companies for their TV signals. Bell, which owns Canada’s largest satellite service, known as Bell TV, alleges in documents filed with the Federal Court of Appeal that the broadcast regulator has overstepped its jurisdiction and has asked a judge to intervene. The move comes after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said in May it would let large conventional networks, such as CTV and Global Television, negotiate with cable and satellite carriers on compensation for their signals. The court filing is unorthodox, since it is extremely rare for a company to challenge the CRTC so directly. The bitter debate has driven a wedge down the middle of the broadcasting industry in Canada, and these court filings demonstrate how contentious the issue has become. There is already tension between Bell Canada and CTV, the television network in which Bell owns a stake, and this case will only increase it since the two sides could meet in court. Bell owns 15 per cent of CTVglobemedia, which is the parent company of CTV and also owns The Globe and Mail.  Paul Sparkes, CTV executive vice-president of corporate affairs, also reserved comment. “As the matter is before the courts, it’s not appropriate for us to comment on the substance of the appeal,” he said. “We are confident that the Federal Court of Appeal will see this for what it is, a stall tactic.” ” Interesting how Bell fought very hard and successfully to get the feds to bring in laws against people who use “black boxes” to take Bell’s satellite signals without paying. Now Bell wants to take the network’s signals, without paying for them, and then charge customers for these signals. Seems very inconsistent to me! ”  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/bell-takes-tv-fight-to-court-to-escape-regulators-squeeze/article1243859/

It is no surprise to me that mobile companies are overpricing their wireless internet services so that only businesses can afford this service.  A wireless spectrum auction last year attempted to improve competition but there is still lots of work to be done. Most mobiles available in Canada come locked to a multi-year contract  http://healthinformaticist.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/oh-canada-isp-censorship-and-internet-slippage/

 

see also

https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/liberals-politicians-do-lie-too/

https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/bell-bce-own-profitability/

https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/11989/

 

 

June 14, 2009

Buyer beware, iphones, Beware especially of ..

   storm

Telus unable to sign new mobile customers… “poor customer service from telus is news?  That’s a “Mickey Mouse” Provider anyway.  Am I am supposed to feel sorry for them? Does this warrant coverage? Karma someone said.. Wait, people are still signing up for Teuls? You can’t speak to anyone……and when you do it’s like talking to your dog…….the only difference is you get a responce from your dog. .. their high speed internet services are also terrible. Poor customer relations as well as trouble getting thru technical support.  Telus probably went over thier bandwith cap or even better..they are throttled… by Bell or Rogers?  Maybe telus should find a better service provider. Telus uses a lot of Dell equipment which should be all you need to know.  this couldn’t happen to a better gouging, money hungry corp. Their record of poor service and arbitrary contract fees, etc has finally caught up with them. My most common telemarketing call: Telus, of course. Desperate fools, I’m NEVER coming back. I’ve had satellite with Bell (terrible service), I’ve had a cell phone through Rogers (nightmare) and both internet and landline through telus (clunky incompetent service)… None can I say went smoothly.  Is anyone happy with any Canadian provider? ” http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/09/09/telus-new-customers-outage.html
 
Canadian cellphone rates among world’s worst,  The average Canadian cellphone user is paying among the highest bills in the developed world, according to a new international study. Using a comparison package of 780 calls made, 600 text messages and eight multimedia messages sent per year, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found that Canada has the third-highest wireless rates among developed countries. The United States had the highest rates for this “medium-usage” package, followed by Spain. Canadians falling into this usage category shelled out an average of $500 US a year for their cellphone service, compared with $635 for Americans and $508 for Spaniards. Dutch users had the cheapest rates, with an annual expenditure of only $131 for the sample plan. Canadians who were light or heavy users ranked slightly better in the OECD’s annual Communications Outlook, released Tuesday. Light users, defined as those making 360 calls a year and sending 396 text messages and eight multimedia messages, spent $195 US a year on average — the 11th-most expensive among the 30 OECD member countries. Heavy users, those making 1,680 calls a year and sending 660 text messages and 12 multimedia messages, spent $563, which ranked near the middle of the pack at 12th. The poor showing was not surprising — the Canadian government has acknowledged that rates are too high and are contributing to lagging cellphone usage. Canada now ranks last for cellphone users per capita in the OECD, having been surpassed by Mexico since the organization’s previous study. The OECD’s findings are in line with the CBC’s iPhone iNdex, which was compiled last year when Rogers Communications released Apple’s iPhone 3G. The iNdex compared the total cost of the device across 21 countries and found that Canada was the second-most expensive, next to Italy. The total cost of ownership of high-end devices such as the iPhone has also been considerably higher because Canada is the only OECD country to require three-year contracts. Most countries have two-year limits on contracts. Canadian carriers have recently begun offering such devices without contracts, albeit with hefty up-front fees.
 
Canadians are also getting hosed for their internet access, according to the OECD Communications Outlook study. Canada has the second-most expensive high-speed connections, or those ranging between 12 and 32 megabits per second, next to only the Slovak Republic. Such a connection costs around $90 US per month in Canada, well above the OECD’s average of $53. Medium-speed connections, or those between 2.5 and 10 megabits, are eighth-most expensive out of 30 countries at about $48, above the $43 average. Low-speed connections, under 2.5 megabits, are ninth-most expensive at around $33, slightly above the OECD average of $32.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/08/11/canada-cellphone-rates-expensive-oecd.html
 
Many of us suspected that already too.
Consumer_Protection_Law
 
And I have told you so why …. http://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/bell-bce-sympatico/
 
 Adam Savage, the co-host of the popular TV show MythBusters, got the unfathomable $11,000 cellphone bill he got while travelling Canada.  Not liking that disconnected feeling, he used a mobile modem — a thumb-sized device that plugs into a USB port on a laptop — from his U.S.-based AT&T carrier to connect to the Internet in Montreal. On Friday, after he returned back to the United States, he discovered his cellphone had stopped working. When he called AT&T to find out the problem, his jaw dropped. He was slapped with an $11,000 bill for data usage during his five-day stay in La Belle Province. With his Canadian roaming rates at $0.015 cents per kilobyte, he would have had to use about 750,000 kilobytes — or about 750 megabytes — worth of data transfers.  About  750  minutes watching  YouTube ”   http://www.canada.com/MythBuster+uses+Twitter+fight+phone+bill/1741348/story.html 
 
“D.C. Police Officers Carry iPhones,  Police officers can use the iPhone to run traffic checks, track patrol routes and better respond to incidents. “Apple has done an amazing job with the user interface,”   “The browser application and application integration is so simple” The D.C. government has been testing the iPhones since Apple launched a beta program for the device among enterprises. About 75 iPhones are being used in the areas of public safety, education and healthcare.  “http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/09/gadget-love-for The main problem is the often poor service you get from the people, carriers  who actually do sell, service the iPhones..

Quebec to end automatic cell phone contract renewals, surprise fees  and what about the Internet service  providers, who are the same firms doing the same bad things there too to the customers, well?

Quebec to end automatic cellphone contract renewals, surprise fees CBC.ca –  The Quebec government has tabled legislation to better protect consumers in the province when they sign cellphone contracts. Justice Minister Kathleen Weil said laws aimed at protecting cellphone users were written in the early 1970s and don’t address current consumer habits. She said Bill 60, introduced Tuesday, would revise outdated rules. There can be “very onerous penalty fees” to pull out of a contract once a service provider automatically renews it — usually for a period lasting three years, Weil said. The bill would prohibit the renewal of cellphone contracts without a customer’s written approval, she said.  It would also force merchants to disclose the total cost of the goods and services offered, a move Weil said should prevent customers from being caught off guard by hefty fees for services they don’t want, such as text messaging. In addition, companies won’t be able to suddenly increase fees during the life of the contract. “Consumers often don’t understand everything that they have agreed to when they’ve signed that contract,” the minister said. “The contracts are a little vague, and there are services that are added over time without their knowledge and without their consent.” “The first thing that [merchants] do is offer you a free cellphone, and it’s sort of the lure that gets you into that relationship,” Weil told reporters. Merchants will have to explain existing warranty protection Weil said the new law would make it illegal for merchants to sell extended warranties before telling customers what the manufacturer already offers for warranty protection. It would also put an end to expiry dates on prepaid cellphone gift cards. The minister said the bill, amending the province’s Consumer Protection Act, would correct an imbalance in an evolving industry. “In consumer protection you often have an imbalance that happens over time and in the whole field of telecommunications. There is not a jurisdiction in North America that hasn’t noticed this imbalance.” Michel Arnold, head of the non-profit consumer rights group Option consommateurs, said Quebec is the first jurisdiction in the country to introduce this kind of consumer protection. Weil said officials in the province receive nearly 700 formal complaints about cellphone contracts each year — about 10 per cent of all consumer complaints — as well as thousands of inquiries. Bill 60 is expected to be adopted before the end of the year.

and what about in the rest of Canada too?

It costs a cellphone company a mere third of a cent to transmit a text message that it charges customers as much as 15 cents to send, estimates a University of Waterloo professor. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/06/18/tech-text-message-pricing-keshav-cellphone.html
 

Quebec Government Proposes Regulation of Cell Phone Contracts Teleclick.ca;

Bill 60 makes it easier to break phone contracts The Gazette (Montreal) ; CJAD – CTV Montreal  

  Apple iphones are Smart but RIM’s Blackberry phones dominate 50 percent of the North American market.. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) also gained, increasing its share to almost 20% from 13.3% during the quarter. The manufacturer last week also reported a 33% increase in quarterly profit, adding 3.8 million new BlackBerry subscribers. The company noted that 80% of new customers came from consumers and small businesses rather than corporate users.

 

storm

Doctors and Med Students Embrace Smartphones  May 21st 2009   Even though smartphones have been around for years, the exploding application scene (started by Apple’s App Store) has transformed what was typically a business communication device into much, much more. Despite the surge in mobile entertainment apps, it’s not all games: According to the Washington Post, roughly 64-percent of doctors in the U.S. use a smartphone, and many are using devices like the iPhone to look up drug interactions, view X-rays, and even stream music during a surgery.   Med school students are also getting in on the action, with Georgetown’s medical school requiring students to own either an iPhone or iPod Touch (sound familiar?). Similarly, Ohio State University has promised to give each and every one of its 1,400 students an iPod Touch by this Fall. Catherine Lucey, Vice Dean for Education at OSU told the Washington Post, “It allows the residents and the students to ask questions at the bedside, and not rely on memory and not guess. They can actually sit with the patient if they wish and use a number of online sources.”   There’s pretty much an infinite number of uses a device like the iPhone could offer the medical field. With over 25 pages of medical-related apps on the App Store alone — and the ability to link specialized hardware to the yet-to-be-released iPhone 3.0 — you have to wonder if Apple had this planned all along. [From: The Washington Posthttp://www.switched.com/2009/05/21/doctors-and-med-students-embrace-smartphones?icid=sphere_wpcom_inline

   

The iphone operating systems  choices include RIM’s  BlackBerry OS, Apple’s iPhone OS, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, the Google backed Android platform, Nokia’s Symbian standard and the  Palm’s new webOS. Apple is competetive in style and technology, but it’s not the breakaway frontrunner in phones. Remember also, wireless carriers such as Verizon and AT&T — not the handset maker – typically provide the first level of customer support and service if there’s a problem with a device. The proliferation of iphones, operating systems adds another level of difficulty to the  already complex set of offerings.  You also do clearly have to be a full time tech nerd to get the best usage out of your internet connections, iPhone too.. Iphone basically  is a consumer phone and not a real business phone in comparison..  the iPhone’s supposed immediate Web savvy is not very relevant firstly in a business setting. More  detailed criticism of what the iPhone lacks that BlackBerry (and Windows Mobile) do provide to corporate IT: “No enterprise management solution exists. This is okay for a SOHO, but for any business with more than a few hundred users it is unmanageable. No centralized enterprise device encryption products that meet HIPAA, SOX, SEC, or any other form of compliance requirements. In other words I cannot prove beyond my word that a device is encrypted if it is stolen and contained sensitive information. This leaves most U.S. corporations liable to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and potential jail time.” and that there is “no self-destruct mechanism if a lost or stolen device is activated. [For a BlackBerry,] we can send a kill signal that will wipe the device and render it as useful as a brick forever. The device can only be restored to functionality and service by the company that owns it. There is not reset, no reformat. It is dead to the thief and useless to a pawn shop.” “No imaging or standards solution exists for iPhone. We can plug any of our blackberry or Windows Mobile devices into a controller and instantly load a company standard of software and features. This lowers support costs. We can allow and disallow particular functions and features from a central management console controlling what is called a desired state. In other words, we can say a machine can only have a proven stable configuration and deny unauthorized ‘freeware or software’ that may compromise reliability. We can remotely backup data and information for users which makes turn around for replacement or damaged devices quicker and practical because it also restores it to the last state a user had their device. Let’s see you do that with an iPhone.”.. you can’t create folders on the iPhone to manage your apps, as you can on the BlackBerry.  And  the BlackBerry’s themes, which   give   a more integrated view of my applications than the default “Zen” view.  “There are also today themes that can show a number of combinations on the home screen such as calendar events, new mail, sms and MMS messages (the iPhone can’t send MMS, by the way), etc. There are also themes called icon themes that give the user a more ‘unified interface,’ as you put it, just like the iPhone. This is all designed to allow the user the ability to customize their experience to their liking. To understand or view more, simply do a google search for ‘blackberry themes.’ http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=53601
    
Don’t now just believe everything you read even if it is in print..  “Toronto-based Rogers said it activated more than 360,000 smartphones — including Apple’s(AAPL.O) iPhone and Research In Motion’s (RIM.TO)(RIMM.O) BlackBerry — during the quarter ended March 31.” “The Google phone has finally landed in Canada  HTC’s Magic smartphone  succeeds in blending some of the best attributes of the iPhone and the BlackBerry without outright copying either of the devices.  The Magic is one of only two phones currently available in Canada to sport Google Inc.’s new Android operating system (the other being the HTC Dream). Apple’s iPhone 3GS and Palm’s Pre has captured a lot of hype but it don’t count when compared to the leader Research in Motion. A recent Yankee Group survey showed 41% of Americans plan on buying a smartphone for their next phone purchase, and 50% of those people plan on buying a BlackBerry. Only 25% said they would buy an iPhone. BlackBerrys cost less for them to operate than iPhones and Pres. “RIM’s design is much more bandwidth-efficient than its competitors.” “BlackBerry will  adapt its operating system to become much more consumer-friendly for it controls just 20% of the global market, compared to 41.2% for Nokia.”
 
 But what about what the fact that most of positive sale spin adds do not tell you in detail the actual functionalities,  actual final monthly costs too… “The device’s downfall is that it only has 512 megabytes of onboard memory. The Magic has a microSD card slot to allow for up to 16 gigabytes of additional memory (a 2-GB microSD card is included with the phone). So, the Magic is probably not for someone who wants to tote around a huge video and music collection.” etc., ” With the Apple   iPod Touch I  could access the web in WiFi zones, but could not easily check my work email too . My working it outside the office was possible, but it took more effort over the RIM BlackBerry with which  I now already can’t live without it.”
  
 
Now that anytime Internet connections the new order of the new technological age is here   the real problem is   too many Telecommunication Equipment Customer’s Representatives do  either deliberately lie or they even unintentionaly lie because they are incompetent, technically ignorant to try to make a sale, and next you can get the Unexpected  iPhone bill  wireless data roaming charges,  and you also now  next finding out that the wireless surfing can come at a staggering cost. Includes any of the customers who mistakenly signed up for the Rogers Rocket mobile service, or Bell’s plans  thinking they were getting the equivalent of a no-limits plan.   
   
“The present  future development  of iPhone includes multimedia messaging (MMS),  and adding  data tethering to the iPhone, which will turn the device into a wireless modem to connect laptops to 3G networks.
 
“MMS and Tethering – two features that have been readily available on many smartphones for years – are finally making their way to the iPhone. But if you’re in the United States, you won’t be able to use them for at least a few months. Because AT&T, the network with an exclusive lock on the iPhone in the US, couldn’t get it together in time to support them for the iPhone 3.0 software launch. At launch on June 17th, MMS is going to be supported by 29 carriers, and tethering will be supported by 22 of them. So when can we finally expect these stateside? MMS is apparently coming “later this summer”. And tethering? A much more nebulous (and ominous) “later”.

This is ridiculous, plain and simple. AT&T has almost certainly known about Apple’s plans for many months if not years, and was probably involved in determining when these features would be launching in the first place.

AT&T has made it clear many times that it simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to support the millions of new iPhone users that are using their “unlimited” data plans far more than they would on other phones.

Apparently AT&T won’t support the long-awaited addition of MMS upon the iPhone 3GS’s launch. Boy Genius Report explains the situation thusly, [T]he reason it’s not good to go right away is because AT&T has to manually remove all the “Opt Out MMS codes” on each account. Basically, if we were to summarize this, and we’re going out a little bit of a limb, remove the Opt Out MMS code, and MMS will work with the final OS 3.0 build right away. We’ve also just heard that tethering will be 100% locked out at launch, but AT&T’s in the process of putting together a $70/mo unlimited data and tethering plan. SMS and MMS will not be included in that plan, we’re told.” http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/08/att-underscores-how-badly-it-sucks/

Sadly AT&T for a start is not the only carrier that doesn’t have presently  adequate  existing bandwidth to support all of their customers, iPhone users  using  an “unlimited” data plan  and that would now include Rogers and Bell? who are clearly already capping their existing customers and others to over come this serious shortcoming,   and in spite of what they do all  promise now they might have in the future I really rightfully do not believe them.  ..  why Rogers and Bell, others  are always a LOSER. Always looking for some way to SOCK IT TO  their customers over  and over again and find another excuse to make the customers pay more. If they all knew the whole truth the Lower subscriber usage means smaller revenues for carriers like Rogers , Telus Corp  and Bell, BCE Inc  

“In Vancouver, David Morton was sold on a Rogers Rocket Mobile Internet Stick – a wireless USB modem that links to the Rogers network and provides wireless data connectivity when you’re away from a wired-in or Wi-fi Internet connection. It’s a useful solution for road warriors and other mobile Internet users, but starting at $25 for 500 megabytes of data – compared to upwards of 60 gigabytes or more on cable or ADSL Internet connections starting at about the same price – it doesn’t add up to an economical deal. For many users, a combination of the two – a wired-in Internet solution for home and a USB modem for when they’re on the road – is the best answer. But some consumers are reading the fine print too late to avoid hefty contract cancellation penalties.  “I went into the Rogers store in Yaletown and had quite a discussion with them,” Morton said. “It was kind of sold to us as a home Internet solution. They didn’t tell us it had limits. By the time he realized that wasn’t the right solution, it was too late. “My wife used it for just over the one-month trial period and when she took it back they stuck us for the penalty,” said Morton. .. users considering this for their main home connection should remember 500 MB usually suits just one person using the connection, and often for mobile use only. That limit would fall far short of the needs of a family sharing a home Internet connection.” “I did try to find out what the rates were before leaving. Through Rogers’ website, I couldn’t get any understanding of what the rates would be. There was something about so much per kilobyte downloaded, but one really has no idea what kilobytes are used to check an e-mail.” One of the problems is that talk of megabytes and gigabytes is so much techno-gobbledygook for many consumers. They may have no idea what it translates into when it comes to web surfing, sharing videos, e-mail, downloading movies and music, or the many other functions that have made computers an indispensable tool of daily living.  ” http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/journal/article/699295  
 
Google Updates iGoogle for iPhone, Android Smartphones  iGoogle allows users to personalize the information they recieve in a single page from Google. It does this through a series of RSS feeds and other data sources (i.e. weather, finance, quotes, calendar). A new mobile edition is available for the iPhone and Android that greatly increases the amount of information made available to smartphone users. This new version is faster and easier to use. It supports tabs as well as more of your favorite gadgets, including those built by third-party developers. Note that not all gadgets — like those with Flash — will work in mobile browsers.  One of our favorite new features is the in-line display of articles for feed-based gadgets. That means you can read article summaries without leaving the page. You can also rearrange gadget order or keep your favorite gadgets open for your next visit. None of these changes will mess up the layout of gadgets on your desktop computer, so feel free to play around and tune your mobile experience.  http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2009/6/2009-6-15-Google-Updates-iGoogle.html
 
So the market for web-browsing and multi-media capable mobile phones — dubbed smartphones — has also matured in the last year, as competitors such as Palm and Research in Motion as well as mobile phone mainstays such as Nokia, Samsung and HTC battle for market share. Now about the other side of the add  facts.. read the fine print, talk to some experts first. Many people say that the  major carriers in Canada have all lost their  chance for public credibility years ago and they  have no use for any of the  four companies, who  make massive profits and treat their  customers like garbage. They have  had it with cell phones in this country.  Hopefully one of the new companies will drive  the bad incumbents into bankruptcy lile they did to Nortel.. Gouging consumers with high prices, extras tends to backfire with serious repercussions.
 
 Ever wonder besides viruses that as time goes by you notice that   your computer net is slower, and slower, well it is no  secret Bell, Rogers, and others cannot handle the continually increasing demands cause by computers and iphones now too. So their thus do next  systems break down, do too often have failures, are over used, in over capacity mode.. and these carriers seem to  have been to cheap to rectify the problem, update, modernize their communication equipment..
 
curve
 

 

  What all does your mobile do for you?
  • Yes you make and receive calls
  • Send and receive SMS
  • Take photographs
  • Store phone numbers/contacts
  • Play music
  • Surf the net
  • Play video
  • Send and receive multimedia files
  • Organizer
  • Calculator

Grocery chains, Coprorations, ISP, iPhones, “Just like cable and satelite offers where they sign you up and then slowly bleed your services down to test patterns.  What I love is their departure gift after cancellation, the “cancellation fee”. These corporations are a joke. They will follow Chrysler into the dumpster as people increasingly must tighten budgets.” History repeats itself often…  

“Bell Canada Inc. is facing another challenge to its internet throttling practices as Quebec’s consumer watchdog, L’Union des consommateurs, has filed a class-action lawsuit against the company. The suit, filed Thursday in Quebec Superior Court on behalf of Montreal resident Myrna Raphael, seeks certification for all subscribers in the province. The lawsuit alleges that by deliberately slowing internet speeds, Bell has misrepresented its service and raised concerns over privacy. The consumer watchdog is seeking the return of 80 per cent of the internet subscription price, which it says is equal to the reduction in speed, as well as $600 per subscriber to compensate for false advertising and $1,500 for privacy rights violation. The watchdog said in a release that Raphael signed a three-year contract with Bell in 2006 on the basis that she would receive a connection with “always-on constant high speed, without frustrating interruptions during peak hours of the day.”  Montreal-based Bell has admitted it is using so-called deep packet inspection, or DPI, technology to slow down certain uses of the internet — primarily peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent — during peak periods. The company says it needs to do so because a small percentage of heavy peer-to-peer users are causing congestion on its network, which could slow overall speeds for a large number of customers. Bell spokesman Mark Langton said the company does not comment on cases before the courts. Bell is not the only internet service provider to throttle customers speeds, as Toronto-based Rogers Communications Inc. has acknowledged doing so. The union, however, also launched a class-action lawsuit against Vidéotron last year for forcing download limits on internet customers in the middle of their contracts. The company said it was not violating the terms of those contracts as it gave customers two months warning. 

The suit was followed Thursday night by submissions to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission by Bell and the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, which represents 55 smaller ISPs that rent portions of the company’s network. The parties were responding to an inquiry into Bell’s traffic-shaping practices by the CRTC, which sprouted from a complaint filed in April by CAIP.

In its filing, Bell said the traffic shaping, which it began applying to its own Sympatico customers in November and then to its wholesale CAIP customers in March, was necessary in order to prevent the slow-down of speeds for about 700,000 customers. Bell’s head of regulatory affairs, Mirko Bibic, told CBCNews.ca on Friday that throttling is just one of the means in which the company is addressing its congestion problem. Pricing plans based on usage as well as continued investment are the other solutions, he said, although “building alone is not going to solve the problem.”

CAIP in its submission accused Bell of lying to the CRTC by saying its throttling was only being used on peer-to-peer applications. The group said Bell has admitted to two independent ISPs, Sentex and Execulink, that its DPI technology was having an impact on virtual private network (VPN) connections, which was affecting individuals’ ability to work from home. The group also said DPI was affecting Voice over Internet Protocol telephones “  http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/06/02/tech-quebec.html 

There are some legitimist reasons for high  costs… one is the fact that the telecommunications companies tend to be  very poorly managed, have too many cheap, indecent, incompetent personnel
    
The Consumers’ Association of Canada has told the CRTC it is up to Internet service providers to prove they have to restrict web traffic. The association says the major ISPs have not shown they need to manage web traffic. The CRTC opened hearings Monday into what conditions ISPs such as Bell, Rogers Communications and Quebecor can control traffic on their networks. The ISPs have said they need the ability to throttle traffic during peak times, to fight off congestion on their network. https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/bell-sympatico/ 
 
 
New entrants seek to change wireless iphone  game, consumers looking for choices beyond the current offerings of Rogers, Bell and Telus, http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/06/19/wireless-entrants-globalive-dave-public-mobile.html
 
In today’s technology driven products, markets, a 3 year contract  with a phone carrier is eternity, meaning your purchased  phone will be quickly obsolete before that.
  
HTC will be the first manufacturer to bring Adobe Flash to the Android platform with the release of its new Hero/Sense device.  iPhone is now the only platform with substantial weight on the market that doesn’t boast support for Flash. With the new Flash Player 10 just around the corner and HTC officially joining the Open Screen Project, Android, Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, and Palm WebOS will be among the first platforms to support full web browsing and access to virtually all Flash-based Web content.  Adobe says about 80% of all online videos are delivered in Flash today and Adobe Flash Player content reaches over 98% of Internet-enabled desktops worldwide. With flash there are No modifications generally required to access most of the internet immediately, to get movies, maps, games, and lot more 
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/devices/articles/htchero.html
 
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/basic-contract-law/

September 6, 2008

Restrictive Trade practises

 
US Supreme Court OKs Cellphone Unlocking Suit. The cell phone unlocking exemption covers cases where cell phone software locks are circumvented “for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network.” This could force AT&T to unlock the coveted iphone. AT&T is Apple’s exclusive phone provider. “They may be more unwilling than otherwise because the iphone is such a big seller. Unlocking your iphone is perfectly legal under a 2006 exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. AT&T, the bundled phone provider for the new iphone, threatened legal action over the weekend against a Belfast-based company that claims it has developed software to circumvent the locks that prevent the iphone from being used on networks other than AT&T’s. As the Cellphone users of America know they can  unlock their phones and they have nothing to lose but their roaming charges? The new copyright ruling that lets Americans unlock their phones without legal liability should be a significant benefit for cell addicts around the country. Basically, the exemption will make it possible for consumers to take cellphones with them when switching carriers. In the past, providers forced customers to turn in or throw out old phonees when switching to a new carrier.
 
http://blog.wired.com/
   
 Misleading Corporate advertising and even  Restrictive Trade practices such as even locking the phones  should have been banned before they were implemented. what any person does with his product, iphone included,  after he bought is basically no one’s business..
  
do see also https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/apple-mr-jobs-has-admitted-privacy-invasion-iphone/
 
http://wittnessed.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/popular-christian-based-readinsg-resources/

August 16, 2008

Clearly the Canadian CRTC is in someone’s back pocket

 

The Bell company has also adopted rebranded its Bell ExpressVu, Sympatico and residential service in favour of Bell TV, Bell Internet and Bell Home Phone.”It’s all to convince to convey that Bell is and has gotten better,” Bell Mobility president Wade Oosterman said in an interview.But telecom analyst Carmi Levy of AR Communications said the changes will have little impact unless they are accompanied by a dramatic improvement to customer service.”You can change your logo and you can change the name of your offering until the cows come home but if you don’t change the fundamental way that you operate, then the rebranding effort will be for not,” the Toronto-based analyst said in an interview.He said Bell needs to be less adversarial and aggressive with customers and more responsive to their needs.“This needs to be just the first salvo in an ongoing effort to become a softer friendlier company to deal with.”New Bell chief executive George Cope has promised to improve customer service as it completely overhauls the vast business. The Montreal-based company recently announced plans to shed 15 per cent of management and sell non-core assets.

CRTC Internet Traffic Ruling Throttled ‘Til October

Complaints over the throttling of Internet traffic – in apparent violation of industry regulations if not ‘Net neutrality aspirations – are themselves being slowed.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has delayed its ruling on a dispute involving Bell Canada and third party Internet Service Providers over Internet data rates and throughput.

The CRTC now says it will rule on the fight between Bell and the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) by Oct. 31. ”

Clearly the CRTC is in someone’s back pocket  for the CRTC is not speedily working on behalf of the many complaining  Canadian citizens

Believe it or not, face it or not Bad and abusive  Corporations,   churches,   pastors,   cops, in fact all bad persons are often the number one concerns of many people, on the net too, many citizens,  in every province, Canada wide too,  and yet this is an area where the too often pretentious government, poor ministers, that have wrongfully also  hired too often their pretentious friends into key  and secondary jobs now too, are clearly wrongfully not doing enough now here  too… but they still steal, take a big   salary, with perks, expenses accounts  wrongfully for it too..   https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/corupted/

 
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/apple-mr-jobs-has-admitted-privacy-invasion-iphone/
 
 
PS: In the US early-termination fees on cell phone contracts are illegal AND WHAT ABOUT IN Canada?

A Canadian consumer cancelling their cell phone, or their Home Phone or their Internet service provider  and any the supposedly applicable termination fees, related  early cell phone termination fees  supreme court ruling in the US FIRSTLY does not apply in Canada since the Telecommunication industry and the ISP, Internet service providers are all still  unregulated by the governments, all of them, neither the customers or the corporations, providers they  they generally are not subject to any possible COURT DISPUTES SETTLEMENTS, REGULATIONS, AND  even if Rogers or Bell tries to tell you otherwise? and tries to  enforce their cancellation fees? They Corporations they have to rely on the good will of their customers to pay these inapplicable contract, termination charges in Canada? True or false?

Some persons still do argue that when you agree to the contract with a carrier for  that new phone even for free or at a discounted rate, or an ISP, Iphone services   it was understood what you were doing entering into a legally bind contract so do explain to me what the point of a contract is… when you can just get out of it at any time with no deterrent? or Bell itself often as is it often the case now too does not keep their promised contractual commitments, and secondly their CONTRACT CLAUSES, agreements, clauses are so one sided, unfair the the  COURTS TEND  NOT SUPPORT THEM NOW AS WELL.
 
“A California Supreme Court judge has ruled that early-termination fees on cell phone contracts are illegal. This is HUGE. Contracts and early-termination fees basically define the cell phone industry in the United States. Could we be headed for a major change if this decision holds? By locking consumers into 1 to 2-year contracts with an early-termination fee tacked on, carriers are able to guarantee a certain amount of revenue from their subscribers. By doing this, they are able to offer subsidies on the actual hardware. This is why the iPhone 3G is only $199, but requires a 2-year contract. This is completely different from Europe and other markets where consumers pay full price for their hardware, but are not forced to sign any contracts. There will be appeals by the cell carriers, but if this holds, what could happen? Early termination fees put the power in the hands of the carrier. How many times have you heard a friend say they would love to get a new phone or switch carriers only to shoot down their idea because they are under contract for another year? In some cases, it could even be cheaper to pay for two contracts instead of paying the early termination fee on one. So, let’s assume this decision holds, and carriers aren’t legally allowed to charge these fees, we’ll probably either see the carriers attempt to work around the legal problems through a loophole or the abolition of cell phone contracts. Hooray! Except, cheap handsets are the first thing to follow contracts out the door. Most people don’t realize that cell phones are actually fairly expensive pieces of hardware after years and years of discounted, subsidized prices. In the end, it’s hard to say if the consumer will save money out of contract, but with a full-priced device. It’ll depend on the plans, which could increase in price in response. So if we might not actually save any money, what will be gained by this decision? Freedom. Some cell phone carriers are notorious for poor customer service because they probably don’t feel like going out of their way to help their customers when they have them locked into a contract. Without contracts, a greater responsibility to appease and provide for the customer falls on the carriers. Suddenly, threats to cancel service and move to a competitor could have meaning. Carriers would have to fight to keep you as a customer. Pair this up with the trend of moving toward open networks that must accept any device and you’ve got the making of a European style cell phone market. That is, of course, if the carriers don’t just find a loophole. You can be sure their best lawyers are on the case. On the hardware side, most phones would end up being sold unlocked. We wouldn’t be surprised if the retail market for devices moves online or into big box retailers, while the service is sold by carriers. Sure, they’d sell phones too, but suddenly a whole new market complete with competition could open for unlocked handsets. If you were suddenly able to break your contract without consequence, would you switch carriers? Are you patiently waiting for your contract to end so you can get a new phone or upgrade?    http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/687741/No_Early_Termination_Fees_Will_The_Cell_Market_Completely_Change.html

   

do see the many Post about Bell here too..

https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/bell-throttles-internet-speeds/

https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/3-of-canadas-top-news-stories-relating-to-the-court-justice/

I have a  engineering degree, Concordia University , Montreal 1 , and I had worked as a ReMax Realtor in Calgary too but in my decades of real life experiences in Canada the existing laws, regulating societies, governments clearly did not stop many Realtors,  lawyers or even now Bell Sympatico from telling lies to the customers, others.  http://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2008/07/13/misapplications-of-the-laws-in-canada/
 
Imagine that Bell has been in Business for many years and is still guilty now clearly of misleading advertisements, fraudulent and unacceptable business practices, not living up to their contractual obligations, as I now have PERSONALLY WITNESSED, EXPERIENCED  and undeniably detailed to even Bell and many others many times too now . I Paid for a high speed unlimited download service but that is not what I got next. I got low internet speed at a high price. With Bell you have to check your actual delivered speeds , “internet download and upload speed test” cause Bell seems to change it to suit themselves..  (Presently I am with Acanac Inc. http://www.acanac.ca 1-866-281-3538, and do  see their speed test too).

August 12, 2008

Apple Mr Jobs has admitted privacy invasion, iphone

Apple has said it has the capability of erasing every copy of an app that has been downloaded to its devices. “Hope we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull,” Mr Jobs said.

 
the fact that Mr Jobs has admitted Apple can remotely remove applications from one’s iPhone which may have paid for.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4504600.ece
  
is still now Apples’ iphone owners privacy invasion, and is unacceptable.. illegal too,  especially without a court order.
 
 
 
    
 Tell them all I had said so too. 

Believe it or not, face it or not Bad and abusive  Corporations,   churches,   pastors,   cops, in fact all bad persons are often the number one concerns of many people, on the net, many citizens,  in every province, Canada wide too,  and yet this is an area where the too often pretentious government, poor ministers, that have wrongfully also  hired too often their pretentious friends into key  and secondary jobs now too, are clearly wrongfully not doing enough now here  too… but they still steal, take a big   salary, with perks, expenses accounts  wrongfully for it too..

July 13, 2008

Misapplications of the Laws in Canada

0crooks
 
Look… 
 
Here just for a start is what I have noted about the laws in Canada and their applications now too the last half century too.
  
In the application of justice the law Justice itself now is be be blind, for it is to be  impartial, uniformly applied too, fair, just, honest, but that now often is not the case still too.
 
Anyone who firstly believes that there is solely true Justice in all parts of  Canada is basically an ignorant Ostrich or a  fool, for still there are all kinds of ways, means, places where the laws now are still inadequately regulated, poorly and inadequately applied, enforced, carried out, and even where false partiality and false discrimination is now being applied too…. for just one example revenue generating traffic tickets seem to get too much police attentions too often  as we all seem to know, not the bad drivers, drunk drivers. Many laws are still underfunded and some still overfunded.. 
 
Too many persons who enforce the always now  they themselves wrongfully think that they are above keeping the laws, and wrongfully believe that they are exempt from any prosecutions of the wrong doings, and we see these poor unacceptable attitudes, behavior often,  amongst the  poor civil , public servants, bad police, bad RCMP included. Not enough of these too often bad guys now are really sent rightfully to jail still too. This too is always unacceptable still. For  one example here.. We all seem to know bad cops tend to mostly get away with their bad acts, they are cover-up, hushed, denied too often still too. Self regulations often tends to be just masturbation, not real justice.
 
The laws, justice system gives preferential treatment, advantages to liars, perjurers, when we can easily see that the Queen’s courts as well rarely prosecute perjury in the courts by lawyers, spouses, witnesses, etc.. When was the last time you heard the judge arrest a pretender, crooked lawyers for lying to the courts, or someone else?  after all we tend to know that the average person still lies , exaggerates at least one every 5 minutes. It seems even in the courts the person now who  hires the best liar, or lies the best can win.. even police officers do lie unprosecuted too often.
 
Speaking of false partiality of the Courts, and the Canadian federal government itself  has left the internet unregulated..  at least in part only.. we know that child molesters, child pornography on internet in Canada can be and are often rightfully prosecuted, and that some internet bullies are now being rightfully prosecuted by some provincial human rights commissions, even by some of the courts for slander, abuse  now too.. But not all of the the  human rights, verbal abusers even now  are being adequately dealt with too, nor the internet service providers who lie, are clearly now guilty of being abusive, falsely restrictive, censorship, privacy invasions, guilty false misleading advertising, restrictive business practices, bait and switch approach are not being fully dealt with and this is unacceptable, a falsely discriminatory practice  that now still always too and needs to be fully dealt with too.
  
Group representing 220,000 teachers votes for criminalizing cyberbullying The Canadian Press – Sat Jul 12, 5:56 PM MONCTON, N.B. – Delegates representing 220,000 teachers across the country have unanimously voted in favour of pushing to make cyberbullying a criminal offence.
 
 Hey I have known for years that the big bad boys hate me, curse me, for telling the whole truth even about them on the net.. someone has to do it.  I do not need  a gun to solve this problem too, for the pen is mighier than the sword.

Thanks to the too often inadequate, pretentious justice misters  indeed,  to date, very few valid, major legal reforms have taken place. They rather seem all to have been piecemeal and poorly  coordinated between the provinces and territories too, now moreover  this all has  led to the implementation of such a fragmented, poor,   unpredictable legal, justice systems. 

 

Then there is the manner of the selection of the police officers, the justices of the police, and the judges themselves now too, definitely political and partisanship influenced, hiring personal friends is a common practice in Canada still too, and it seems that bad people can be appointed, serve as  cops, lawyers, judges etc., still too.
 
Canadian laws and related sentences, punishments,  are not even uniform even across Canada but now are subject to varying, and different provincial jurisdictions, and varying standards too, where each province, territories  gives it’s own distinct preferential observances, enforcement, different sentences for,  of the specific laws even. 
 
Even the police themselves do too often falsely  discriminate, in the applications of the laws too, for   they do and can pick and chose what laws they will enforce and which ones they will not, and chose even as to whom they will prosecute and whom they will not. They falsely and undeniably  like to mainly listen to the person who has the biggest political influence, outcome on their pensions, salaries firstly, even their political masters. Some groups, persons, Corporations,  laws   thus still get disproportionate attention, preferential treatments.. discriminations against natives, black, ethnic persons, cultural profiling is still being carried out too by even police officers and Judges ehh?  

 

Jer 1:17 But you gird up your loins! Arise and tell them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed {and} break down at the sight of their faces, lest I confound you before them {and} permit you to be overcome.  18 For I, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land–against the [successive] kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land [giving you divine strength which no hostile power can overcome].  19 And they shall fight against you, but they shall not [finally] prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.

Now I have posted various messages on different subjects on my   wordpress sites.
 
I find it also still unbelievable that the top   topics from many different subjects read by many  are
1- The bad Bell Sympatico internet services
2 – How to deal with an alcoholic.
3 – How to deal with verbal abusers, bullies
4 – How to deal with the silent abuse treatment by others
5 – Bad pastors and bad Churches
 
6 – Bad cops, bad RCMP
7 – Bad Politicians
 
 Jer 2:8 [Even] the priests did not say, Where is the Lord? And those who handle the law   knew Me not. The rulers {and} secular shepherds also transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by [the authority and in the name of] Baal and followed after things that do not profit.

see also

https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/ 
https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/?s=RCMP
http://witnessed.wordpress.com/
http://anyonecare.wordpress.com/
http://postedat.wordpress.com/
http://thefocusonthefamily.wordpress.com/

 

 

Matt 23:23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you give a tenth of your mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected {and} omitted the weightier (more important) matters of the Law–right {and} justice and mercy and fidelity. These you ought [particularly] to have done, without neglecting the others.

July 8, 2008

Justifiable Uproar

 I have sent many letters to the useless Minister of Industry, Consumer affairs,  Jim Prentice MP   CorrespondenceMinister@ic.gc.ca ; and when I next phoned them in Ottawa and I HAD RECENTLY asked about a decent reply to my many letters, they said they do not know where they are,  and for me to mail them again TO THEM.. RATHER ask them to read them on the net too then for they are there as well!! Let them RE read this too..

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Stephen Harper is a hit when viewed from afar Calgary Herald,  Canada –  From a close-up perspective, the Conservative government has put in a fairly credible, largely scandal-free performance since the election in 2006 ????????????????????? Not true!
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The MP Stephen Harper, he is nice from far but far from nice, as we all know also that he lies, lied, had broken most of his re-election promises, which the Conservative Ostriches in Alberta would now have us falsely try to deny, and even have us wrongfully  to become liars like them now too…  even denying Harper’s and the Conservative promises of full openness, transparency ,  accountability and not to hire any conservative friends, etc,… to be different than the other parties now too.. not be merely another  bullies, bashers, liars, slanderers, living high on the hog, alcoholics, etc,..
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The typical bad lawyer, Minister of industry, consumer affairs, Jim Prentice MP, also hires his Conservative friend, shame on you.. Tories appoint Reform founder Manning to science advisory panel  AND as for Preston Manning ALL HE SEEMS TO LOVE TO TALK ABOUT MONEY THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL.. NOW HE MANNING WILL GET MORE MONEY TO DO THAT TOO. ABSURD! If he is now a real Christian then I am a monkey’s uncle too. HOW IS THAT FOR A SCIENTIFIC INPUT?
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 .
So the Industry minister even calls on Bell, Telus to explain new text charges- 

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This is not even a new issue but an old one. I firstly could not help but notice that a very significant AMOUNT OF YOUNG PEOPLE USE THE iPHONES AND COMPUTERS STILL, and that as a direct result we now have whole generation of users who clearly do strongly hate the federal government as well as the big corporations for allowing them to be abused again and again. A really Smart move??  for the Conservatives and big Corporations   getting young customers too mad at them now even for life. Certainly not a good, or a great marketing practice for  the Conservatives, the Corporations, even for Industry Minister Jim Prentice MP. The whole fiasco, poor past responses, inactions   now still being poorly thought out ironically  applies now even to to the Conservatives and the Industry Minister himself  now as well.. It all clearly falls in the same category as the Conservative Stockwell Day MP  and his past skidoo antics.

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“Finally Industry Minister Jim Prentice is calling on the chief executive officers of Bell and Telus to meet with him and explain their decision to charge consumers for incoming text messages. Jim Prentice has sent letters to the heads of the two companies, has said the decision to charge consumers without text bundling packages will hurt consumers. The companies must meet with him before Aug. 8. “While I have no desire to interfere with the day-to-day business decisions of two private companies, I do have a duty as minister of industry to protect the interests of the consuming public when necessary,” Prentice said in a statement. “I believe this was a poorly thought out decision.” Under the Corporations  new plans, customers will be charged 15 cents for each incoming text message, including uninvited spam messages. Previously, customers without text plans were only charged for outgoing messages. Customers with a text messaging rate plan or bundle will not be affected by the new charges.”

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Hey  let me shout it all to you again and again, as a taxpayer I too always do openly rightfully expect always a  good government, and I rightfully expect the government to do it’s job, including all of it’s ministers, and I rightfully also expect them always to fully to protect the citizens from the Corporations false misleading advertising, price gouging, price fixing, price collusions, bait and switch approach sales marketing approach, and a lot more. The problem also with the industry minister acting now on the iphone text issue while better late than never, is that the same major ISPs have used the same immoral approach on their Internet services as well and to date nothing was , is being done still about that  wrongfully. and this is also still unacceptable.
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It is also still  interesting how much of the negative complaints rightfully are even coming from Alberta even from the Industries Minister’s own riding, Province too, right from the heart of Conservative supporter country.
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Here again is how many Canadian consumers, citizens do see it as far as the iphones mainly. “Only the person who sends the message should be charged plain and simple. Why should I pay because some spammer sent me a text message that I did not want to receive. If I don’t want to answer my phone, I can simply ignore a call, but a text message from a number I don’t recognize is delivered to my phone whether I want it to be or not.”
“Don’t think for one minute that hasn’t been their plan all along – announce it at a high rate, with the intent of “backing off” to a lower rate…and then slowly increase that rate over the next few years once there’s a general acceptance of the practice “
“I am loathe to trust a company that changes the terms of my agreement mid-contract. I would like to learn how it is that they are allowed to do this, but if I would like to change the particulars of my contract mid agreement, it is not allowed.  I would like to think that if the terms are changed, shouldn’t the principal agreement holder be notified of the changes, otherwise it be nullified?”
“Pay twice for one service…..  I’ll charge a fee to them for writing a cheque to pay my bill”
“Clearly it is in the best interest of consumers for their elected representatives to voice their concerns on top of those of the consumers when Canadians are being gouged at almost every turn. Bell and Telus clearly to not have the best interests of their customers in mind, rather as always, they are motivated by greed and profit. “
“Kudo’s to the NDP on this one!!”
This is so typical Bell, Bait and Switch,  first bait the customers and nail the customers on the  extras next too.
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Google slams Bell Canada: open Internet is “extraordinary”
Ars Technica – By Nate Anderson | Published: July 08, 2008 – 12:30PM CT The public comments on Bell Canada’s P2P throttling practices are in, and one thing is clear: a gulf the size of Nunavut separates the huge ISPs from web-based companies and consumer groups. Google goes further; not only should Bell stop picking and choosing which lawful apps to throttle, but the company needs to start upgrading its infrastructure in a serious way. Throttling merely “encourages carriers to build their business model around managing scarcity, rather than developing more abundant capacity.
Google slams Bell Canada for throttling InternetCanada.com TORONTO – Internet heavyweight Google Inc. has waded into a fight with Bell Canada, saying the telecommunications company should be “prohibited” from the practice of curtailing of peer-to-peer Internet use to manage limited capacity on its network.
Google joins in Bell Canada traffic throttling warp2pnet.net
CBC.ca – ITBusiness.ca – FierceTelecom – mediacaster
all 16 news articles » 
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Cellphone users to be charged for incoming text messages
CBC.ca –  Cellphone users with Bell and Telus are going to have to fork over a little more to receive incoming text messages, under new pricing plans slated to roll out in August.
Get ready to pay for incoming text messagesCanada.com
Uproar over new Canadian texting feesUnited Press International
Mobile Magazine – Soonews.ca – QuicklyBored – The Province
all 40 news articles »  En Français »

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There is a  public outrage on the part of Canadian consumers following the release of the local pricing plans. Apple the iPhone maker has watched nearly 50,000 of its loyal customers sign an anti-Rogers petition at ruinediphone.com, which has in turn sparked hundreds of potentially damaging reports on the matter by bloggers and members of the mainstream media.

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Canada’s cellphone market is currently dominated by three key players – Bell (TSX:BCE), Telus and Rogers Communications Inc.(TSX:RCI.B).
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The petition has attracted attention in Canada and abroad, but it won’t have any effect on Rogers unless consumers follow through with the old-fashioned but simple and reliable strategy for pulling down prices.

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If you don’t like the price of an iPhone, don’t buy it. If Rogers finds it has priced itself out of the market, it won’t take a petition to ring in lower prices.

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All that is just the beginning of the Customer reactions, war I had written about months ago too.

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Prentice calls Bell, Telus to task for decision to charge clients without bundle The Canadian Press – Wed Jul 9, 4:05 PM

OTTAWA – Industry Minister Jim Prentice is taking Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility to task for their plans to charge some of their customers for each incoming text message and called both company CEOs to Ottawa to explain their “ill-thought out” decision.

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  https://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2008/07/06/bell-bce-sympatico-iphone/

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Internet oversight
Globe and Mail – 3 hours ago
Toronto — Re Google Raises Fuss Over Bell’s Speed Bumps (Report on Business, July 9): Bell Canada and other telecommunications companies have been slowing, shaping and restricting Internet traffic for some time.
Google slams “throttling” of internet traffic in CanadaDigital Home
Google condemns Bell’s ‘throttling’ practiceToronto Star
Canada.com – Ars Technica – CBC.ca – BetaNews
all 51 news articles »

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Canada’s phone companies and the federal government itself  have still even failed to understand how the consumers, markets are changing.. so both Bell and Telus get hit by a backlash over new texting prices.  It is not just  about price, it was about the restriction and limitation of the user experiences too. Canadian telecom giants are feeling the heat like never before by  an increasingly savvy and demanding customer against finely tuned telecom incumbents . There is   irony to the fact that as the phone companies roll out new services that allow people to communicate instantly in new ways, their customers are using the technology to express their criticism of how those services are offered and priced.  the government’s plan to keep the wireless industry also unregulated is real crap.  Neither of these rather mostly abusive parties  are about to listen to the Canadian Customers still, it will take more drastic responses..
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