Gus Digital

The Canadian Wireless spectrum auction is now completed and the winner is….the Canadian Government which will net $4.2 billion dollars, based on the CBC report.

What does this mean, well we will now have a new national cellphone provider - Globalive who currently sells home and long distance service under Yak.

As per the Federal Industry Minister, Jim Prentice, says this will bring in more competition and will benefit the Canadian consumer. I’m currently not so sure about that. This auction itself brought in more money than expected, almost 4x as much. This means current suppliers like Telus, Bell and Rogers paid more for the auction and will of course pass on this to their consumers with higher rates. Also the new player will probably want a big cut of the “Canadian cellphone pie” and will charge higher rates just because we are so use to these rates here in Canada.

I honestly hope I am wrong in this, but really time will tell.  We have to wait for 30 days from now before Globalive announces its plan and how long it will take to be operational.

The good news is that the new player will have 3G capabilities and run under GMS, which is what Rogers and Fido currently run under.  Hopefully they will introduce the iPhone to their line and give Rogers a run for their money.

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Yesterday somehow when I was getting ready for work my 2 month old Sony Ericsson W580I phone hurt itself. I have no idea how this happened, but the inner LCD screen developed a crack. The phone had worked fine that morning as I took a phone call, but just before I left for work I looked at the phone and noticed that screen was off. I restarted the phone (hoping this might help), but that didn’t fix it.

I was glad I had a 2 year warranty on the phone as I would just get it repaired (so I thought).

I took it the Rogers kiosk at Pacific Centre and was pretty much surprised at the level of lack of service I received. The gentleman behind the counter pretty much said “good luck in getting this repaired”. He let me know that the warranty doesn’t cover “damaged screens due to use”. When I let him know that I didn’t drop the phone or do anything to it, he couldn’t care less. He told me I had to take it to 2nd and Burrard to get it repaired. I had asked him give me the address and I felt as if I was asking him some task that was beyond his level of employement. He “manage” to write it down for me, but when I asked him for a number he told me he didn’t know the number (which was shocking) and just wrote the name of the store.

I was not impressed.

I ended up back in the office and did my lovely Google search and found out that this is not a rare occurance out there. Others have reported the same issue. Looks like it might be an issue with the phone and having it on vibrate.

I called the store where I purchased the phone and let them know of my internet search and he suggested I contact Sony Ericcson directly, as he said the warranty wouldn’t cover the screen either. Sony Ericcson was actually great to deal with and they sent me a return bill to send my phone in, yet it would take about 3-4 weeks to get my phone back. Being in the business that I am in, this wouldn’t do.

During all this I did send an email to my niece, who works for Rogers in Toronto, and she was spoke with her Rogers’ Sony Ericsson rep. and told him the whole story. They are going to send me a refurbished phone and I will send my phone for repair back to them. My niece Amanda ROCKS!!! She made my day!!!

I have nothing bad to say about Rogers as a company, but my dealing with that “idiot” at Pacific Centre definitely put a damper on my Rogers experience.

The following video is not my phone, but it’s pretty much how mine looks.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JqMeFhgeSE&hl=en]

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The other day I posted 10 things I like about my Sony Ericsson W580i cell phone, today I will write about 10 things I don’t necessarily like about it (in no particular order)

1. No flash with the camera - ok you have a “night time” mood, but you still need a burst of light I feel on those dark nights and the images in night mood are very pix-elated
2. 2 mega-pixel camera - ok I said I liked this (better than my 1.3 from my previous phone), but with phones now-a-days I would have expected at least a 3 mega-pixel camera
3. Rogers media player - now why would I use this when I have the Sony walk-man already on the phone?
4. You can’t zoom when taking photos even though it’s suppose to have 3x optical zoom, you can zoom when you are taking a video
5. Calendar doesn’t display all day events, ie Birthdays.
6. I can’t change what is on my quick main menu buttons.  I have “Calls” and “Music”.  I would rather have “Contacts” instead of the Rogers Music
7. Keys are alittle small and with my big fingers I have to really look at them to make sure I’m pressing the right buttons
8. You can’t send a text message to someones email in you contact without setting up an email account first (Telus you were able to send a text message without any problems)
9. Work address appear first before Home address in the Contacts
10. It runs on the EDGE network and is not 3G compatible

I’m sure there are more but there is some for now

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Well I did it.  Yesterday I took the plunge and changed my cellphone company from Telus to Rogers.  I’ve been thinking of switching from sometime (read my to Blackberry or not to Blacberry post) and after much thought I did.  Now to my surprise I’m on even better plan than I was with Telus.  For roughly the same price (maybe $5 more) I’m actually getting weeknight and weekends for free! WOOHOO!

I did get the Sony Ericsson w580i which is a cool phone, but alas it doesn’t sync with my MacBook Pro.  This even after the sales person said it would sync with my calender.  What I will say it does, via the bluetooth and USB cables, is allows me to access files from my phone.  Now I hope Apple will include this phone in their iSync since they include many other Sony Ericsson phones.

At any rate this will set me up for when the iPhone officially launches in Canada, but I might have to wait until their lawsuit is finished.  Which might be a good thing as we’ll have a second generation phone.

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