Post Tagged with: "RIM"

Uncompetitive Canadian Pricing Threatens Mobile Internet

My weekly Law Bytes column (Ottawa Citizen version, Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on the mobile Internet in Canada, arguing that we are falling behind even developing countries as a consequence of overpriced mobile data services in our cozy, uncompetitive market. Until recently, the conventional wisdom held that there were two barriers – technology and cost – to the emergence of widespread mobile Internet use.  From a technological perspective, most cellphones and wireless devices could manage email and text messaging, but were ill-suited for the full Internet experience including browsing and Internet video.  That technology barrier has largely been eliminated, fuelled by popularity of devices such as the Apple iPhone.

The cost barrier still looms large, however.  Canadian carriers have treated mobile Internet use as a business product, establishing pricing plans that force most consumers to frugally conserve their time online.  Indeed, the mobile Internet in Canada is reminiscent of Internet access in the mid-1990s, when dial-up access dominated the market and consumers paid by the minute for their time online. 
For example, Rogers – Canada's sole GSM provider and therefore the only telecom company currently equipped to offer the iPhone – offers a starter data plan that provides 1.5 megabytes of data per month for $15 (each additional MB is $21).  Since that is not even enough data to download a single high-resolution photograph, most consumers presumably opt for more.   The company's biggest data plan provides 500 MB, yet costs $210 per month – far beyond the reach of most consumers.

This pricing, which is comparable to plans found with Bell and Telus, is not close to competitive internationally.  

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July 23, 2007 16 comments Columns

Is RIM’s Pearl a Ringtone Killer?

Bob Lefsetz astutely points out that RIM's new Pearl device not only features a music player, but also permits users to use the songs they upload as ringtones.

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September 8, 2006 1 comment News

Canadian Online Learning Company Hit With Patent Suit

A Waterloo, Ontario company spends years developing new technologies that leverage the power of the Internet.  It develops a global following.  Then, seemingly out of the blue, it is hit with a patent infringement suit by a U.S. company, instantly facing the prospect of years of costly litigation in U.S. courts.  With limited resources, it must defend itself by arguing that the patents are invalid.

So begins my weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, BBC International version, homepage version) which does not discuss the RIM-NTP patent suit but rather the recent patent lawsuit launched by Blackboard, a learning management system company, against Desire2Learn, a Canadian competitor.  Both the patent and the lawsuit have generated enormous anger within the academic and open source software communities.

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August 14, 2006 4 comments Columns

U.S. Court Orders Rehearing on RIM Patent Jurisdictional Issues

A U.S. Appellate court today agreed to a Canadian government request for a re-hearing of the jurisdictional issues that arise from the RIM – NTP patent fight. The Canadian government submitted a rare brief on behalf of RIM in January, arguing that the U.S. court had applied U.S. patent laws […]

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August 2, 2005 Comments are Disabled News

As It Happens – RIM Patent Battle

As It Happens – RIM Patent Battle, Professor Geist discusses the Canadian government’s decision to intervene in the RIM patent battle in the United States.

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April 18, 2005 Comments are Disabled Audio