Tag: Telecommunications

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Links Quotations

2014.3.18

If you find yourself wishing your province had a competitive fourth provider, you could move to friendly Manitoba or set up shop under Saskatchewan’s living skies. But you wouldn’t have to stay for long. It’s hard to believe, but this is the truth: it’s cheaper to buy a roundtrip plane ticket to Regina or Winnipeg, subscribe to one of these plans and then use it back home, than it would be to sign a contract in Toronto or Calgary.

For the Telus 1GB plan, you could fly roundtrip from Calgary to Regina for $369 and save yourself $350 (after paying for the plane ticket) on a two year 1GB plan.

For the Rogers 10GB plan, you would save a whopping $1,180 dollars after the price of airfare if you flew from Toronto to Winnipeg and signed up for service there.

It might sound crazy, but check for yourself. If you decide to fly to Winnipeg, look me up. I’ll even pick you up at the airport.

Aside from pushing up demand for air travel, it’s hard to see how this kind of pricing is beneficial to anyone but the wireless carriers’ shareholders and management. Canadian carriers like Bell, Telus, and Rogers are supposed to be affected with the public interest – not opposed to it.

We as a country won’t even get close to having a fair market until you can walk, not fly, to a provider offering reasonably priced service.

Ben Klass, “Wireless Carriers’ High Flying Prices”

Ben’s written a nice, punchy, piece about the new cellco price hikes. You should go read it.

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Aside

Cellular Competition in Canada

Cellular contract competition in Canada. It’s incredible that the major cellcos all raised their rates over the same weekend.

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Links

Why can’t, or won’t, your phone company detail data it shares with the feds?

From the Globe and Mail:

Canadians have “no way of knowing for certain the number, scale, frequency of, or reasons for, such disclosures, although we understand that they are substantial.”

…

The companies that responded to Citizen Labber Christopher Parsons included Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Telus, Videotron, Cogeco, Eastlink, MTS Allstream and Distributel, with the general sentiment that the privacy of their customers is of great concern. But their responses were short on details, instead citing vagaries about legal restrictions and national security, and in some cases shifting the onus on transparency to the government instead.

According to David Fraser, a Canadian privacy lawyer and partner with the firm of McInnes Cooper, “They’re able to provide a whole lot more information than they actually are.”

Further pressure on the companies to make it clearer just how, why, and how often they share information with state agencies.

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Links

Internet firms play coy on how they share info with police, government

Via the Ottawa Citizen:

Internet companies have hung up on a call by privacy advocates to reveal the extent to which they share subscriber information with police, security services and government.

 

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Links

Some ISPs don’t cave when asked for subscriber info, says report

IT World Canada:

A Canadian privacy and security group isn’t impressed with the answers it got from Canadian Internet service providers about their policies on

 

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Links

Telecoms evasive on how they co-operate with spies, police: researchers

The Spec:

Privacy advocates say they’re disappointed with vague responses from Canadian telecommunication companies about when and how they hand customer information to police and security agencies.

 

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Links

Internet firms play coy on how they share info with police, government

Ottawa Citizen:

Internet companies have hung up on a call by privacy advocates to reveal the extent to which they share subscriber information with police, security services and government.

Categories
Aside Quotations

2014.2.18

“We are assessing Public Mobile pricing right now and looking at product offerings,” Joe Natale, Telus’ executive vice-president and chief commercial officer, said Thursday in a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s fourth quarter results.

“We have made a commitment to keep the $19 unlimited voice plan in the market through 2014, but we will be looking at all the various aspects of Public Mobile rate plans and making sure we strike the right balance between doing what’s right for Public Mobile customers and putting forth a set of economic considerations with the Telus organization.”

Nicholas Kyonka, “Telus working on Public Mobile integration” (subscription required)

Whenever I read ‘balance between our acquired customers and our own economic considerations’ I almost immediately translate to ‘the acquired customers are gonna enjoy the economic benefits of rate hikes.’

Categories
Links Quotations

2014.2.14

Christopher Parsons, a postdoctoral fellow at the Citizen Lab, told The Varsity that “Metadata at this point, is as or more invasive in its collection and analysis than the content of a communication. Any suggestion that because its metadata, it’s any less invasive, just isn’t true.”

“If you were to monitor the metadata coming out of my phone for a day, it would be a lot more revealing than any actual content. This would include things like where I was, when I made the phone calls, how long they were, who I made them to, and who those people talked to,” said Parsons. Using this information, Parsons said, intelligence agencies can determine movement patterns, browsing tendencies, shopping and lifestyle habits, all without figuring out specifically what was said in the conversation.

The Citizen Lab’s campaign for government surveillance oversight has been at the heart of the debate on consumer telecommunications and Internet privacy. Last week, they issued an open letter to several Canadian phone and Internet service providers (ISPs). The letter asked them to publicize the extent of customer information divulged to law enforcement and other intelligence agencies. When contacted by The Varsity for further comments on the Citizen Lab’s campaign, Jennifer Kett, Senior Manager at Rogers Media Relations said they were currently reviewing the request. She added: “We take the privacy and security of our customers’ personal information very seriously. We require a properly executed warrant to disclose customer information to law enforcement or any other body. If we believe that a request is overreaching we will take steps to challenge it.” Kett declined to provide further details when asked, saying that the review of the Citizen Lab’s request was pending. Bell Canada did not respond to multiple contact attempts.

Amitpal Singh, “U of T academics at forefront of online privacy battle”
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Links

Privacy: You need to know who is listening

As it happens, last week, a group of academics and civil-liberties organizations, led by Christopher Parsons, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, sent out a long questionnaire to 16 Canadian telecommunications carriers. For example, it asks the carriers how the types of the authorities’ requests break down, as among matters of child exploitation, terrorism, national security and foreign intelligence.

Nice to have been mentioned in the Globe’s Editorial!

Source: Privacy: You need to know who is listening