Posts tagged consumers
Look who’s leading the way in low-cost broadband access
Aug 15th
Here’s something that might be worth emulating by Canadian ISPs.
U.S. cable company and ISP Comcast recently launched Internet Essentials, a program that provides Internet access to low-income households for $9.95 (USD), plus taxes, per month. Upon joining the program, a family will be able to purchase a computer for $149.99. Low-income families that qualify will surely benefit from this service – but the facts behind the program raise questions about the digital divide and the right to digital literacy.
Monica Goyal
Private companies are not normally expected to be altruistic, and in this particular situation altruism has been thrust upon Comcast. When Comcast acquired media company NBC-Universal, one condition of the deal was that Comcast provide broadband access to low-income households without forcing them to subscribe to a cable package.
As I was reading Comcast’s eligibility criteria for Internet Essentials, I was particularly struck by the following criterion: No household owing monies or equipment to Comcast is eligible. Comcast is leveraging this great program to collect monies on the delinquent accounts of some low-income families. Low-income families’ indebtedness might be due in part to the high cable and broadband prices they previously faced. Read the rest of this entry »
The mobile ‘push’
Apr 1st
By Nestor E. Arellano
At one moment the giant video billboard on Time Square in New York was showing the picture of a nondescript building. The next moment, Toronto developer Adi Isakovic fiddled with the touchscreen of his iPhone to replace the image with a video clip of his miniature French Poodle, “Cookie.” A few second later, the image was replaced by a live stream video of Isakovic which was shot by his wife Tania with her own iPhone.
Nestor Arellano
The application, called TubeMote, was developed by Isakovic. It allows people using a smartphone or computer to control YouTube video playback on another machine. For this to happen, the target machine needs to be connected to the users TubeMote video account which contains the video.
It was not that the small screen of the iPhone itself is controlling the billboard, Isakovic explained, but rather the mobile device acting as a bridge between the TubeMote channel and the billboard.
Despite this explanation that appears to tone down the role of mobile devices, there is no denying how the tiny screens we hold in our hands daily are rapidly changing how the daily occurrences of our lives play out. Read the rest of this entry »
Facebook and Google plot to disrupt group buying momentum
Feb 2nd
With the launch of Facebook Deals in Canada and Google’s addition of location-based check-ins through Latitude, the group buying trend may find itself disrupted just as its hitting its stride.
Group buying services such as Groupon, WagJag, Living Social, Team Buy, Team Save, Swarm Jam, Kijiji Deals, Captain Save, etc. really took hold in 2010 and now citizens of most major cities around the world have their choice of a pile of daily discount deals to choose from. There’s so many out there that aggregator sites such as OneSpout.ca even sprung up to simplify the deal-shopping experience for users.
Brian Jackson
Now just as it seems that group buying was the trend that was going to single-handedly bring local business transactions into the e-commerce space, the two biggest companies on the Web might have something to say about that.
Managing your cell phone bills – 3 quick Tips
Nov 24th
As reported by the OTI in their latest survey and Canada’s Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications (CCTS), Canadians still have the dubious record of being the most expensive cell phone market in the world and Canadians are filing more complaints about overly complex or confusing options, carrier errors and billing related issues. 
So what do we do? One thing you can do as a Canadian cell phone subscriber is understand your cell phone plan to make sure you don’t end up facing bill shock woes.
Here are 3 quick tips that we find most clients misunderstand about their cell phone plans that you can’t afford not to know. Read the rest of this entry »
Designing a product vs. designing a user experience
Feb 16th
In day-to-day life we often come across products that stand out. Some stand out because they are so good, some stand out because they are so bad and many fail to capture our attention or imagination in any way. 
The factors that separate a good product from a middle of the road product are sometimes difficult to nail down. If we put aside how well a product is marketed, and what role factors such as brand recognition play in the success of a product or service, we can start to peel away some of the outside layers and look at the product itself. Read the rest of this entry »
How a little company could thrive in a big boys’ world
Feb 4th
Bigger isn’t always better – at least that’s how DAVE Wireless sees it.
At the Toronto Board of Trade breakfast on Feb 2, Dave Dobbin gave an insightful and humorous presentation on what to expect from the new carrier when it launches in the spring of 2010 under the consumer name, Mobilicity. 
Dobbin admits that as a small player, the company has received its fair share of speculation around how it will succeed in a market surrounded by the National incumbents, and where some have questioned whether the Canadian market is even large enough to support another carrier. In response, Dobbin made a compelling case on Tuesday that outlined how the company plans to position itself for success.
Much of the reasoning Dobbin referred to can be generalized and extended beyond the Canadian wireless sector to any small company that finds itself competing with their own “big boys”. In a single word, the secret to success appears to be “differentiation” and finding a niche where size alone becomes less important. So how does Mobilicity plan succeed in a big boys world? It plans to do the following:
Death of cell phone haggling?
Dec 16th
As I anticipate covering tomorrow’s Wind Mobile launch, I wonder if the days of haggling over cell phone plans have finally come to an end. After escaping regulatory purgatory, Globalive will reveal its first set of product offerings (BlackBerrys and HTC devices) and the pricing plans that will go along with them. We know so far that the pricing plans will not require a contract, and if the rumoured pricing plans I’ve seen circulating the Web are true, then consumers will be given very clear description of what a cell phone will cost them.
Perhaps motivated by more competition coming to the market, the big three carriers have all moved to similarly simplify cell phone pricing plans. Telus has started marketing its “Clear Choice” plans, for example. All the carriers also offer value brands that don’t charge system access fees and come with less contractual baggage. Read the rest of this entry »
