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Rogers is now offering “portable Internet” service based on pre-WiMax technology in 20 cities across Canada. The 2.5 Gigahertz solution offers 1.5Mbps downstream speeds and 256kbps up, with a 30Gig monthly cap, for $49.95 / month (modem costs $100). “Portable” means the modem still needs to be plugged in, so its not the same as mobile.

Apparently, Rogers Communications and Bell Canada (the cable guys and the phone company) have pooled their licensed wireless broadband spectrum into a new company - Inukshuk Internet - which will build and operate the network. Expectation is that within three years, they will be able to offer service to two-thirds of Canadians (40 cities and approximately 50 rural and remote communities). Although Rogers and Bell will share bandwidth, each will compete for its own subscribers.

See: via Daily Wireless, quoting DSL Reports and Digital Home Canada

Google has apparently filed three patents relating to free wi-fi.

From Cre8asite Forums via Search Engine Roundtable via CNN/Business 2.0

Australia has become the first jurisdiction to force ISPs operating in that country to provide anti-spam options to users. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), through its Internet Industry Spam Code Of Practice, also requires ISPs to inform end-users on ways to combat spam and to have a process for handling complaints from subscribers.

From ITnews

Police detectives used profiles posted on the MySpace social networking website to identify six suspects in a rape and robbery. Great use of modern technology!

From AP via Wired News and other sources.

It used to be that cybersquatters would register the name of a famous person, company or product and then try and sell the name to the rightful owner. But now things have changed. According to Wired News:

These days, cybersquatters seek to register a star’s domain before that person becomes famous, and then develop a business relationship with the new celebrity, offering website hosting or design work. These so-called soft squatters are registering the domains of hundreds of amateur athletes, musicians and other would-be stars in the hope that one or two of the names will become well-known.

There are now even specialized services like sedo.com that make it easy to earn add revenue from parked domain names and at the same time provide a vehicle to help sell such domain names.

Shaw Communications has been hit with a $1.2 million lawsuit filed by U.S.-based VoIP provider ZingoTel which claims that the Canadian cable operator refused to air a ZingoTel television ad because it promoted a competing VoIP-based calling service. The news comes just a couple of weeks after Vonage Canada also filed a complaint with the CRTC about the cable operator’s practices in respect of charging Vonage subscribers a $10 “quality of service enhancement” fee.

From TMCnet

Canada’s Telecommunications Policy Review Panel issued its final report. The report makes a number of other recommendations to reduce or eliminate the current level of CRTC economic regulation. The report also recommends a new approach to control anti-competitive conduct in telecommunications markets on the basis of complaints made on an ex post basis, rather than by prescribing detailed ex ante restrictions governing the provision of services. However, with respect to network neutrality, the Panel considered it important to ensure that Canadian consumers are not denied access to the wide range of new and innovative Internet services.

The report notes that there is a growing concern that increasingly deregulated telecommunications service providers could, for strategic competitive reasons, decide to block or limit access to some Internet applications and content. Therefore the Panel recommends that the Telecommunications Act should confirm the right of Canadian consumers to access publicly available Internet applications and content by means of all public telecommunications networks that provide access to the Internet. … The Panel believes telecommunications service providers in most cases have little or no incentive to interfere with customer access. However, the principle of open access to the Internet is sufficiently important that it justifies a new regulatory provision to ensure that it is maintained.

This will be good news to VOIP service providers, and other Internet content providers, who are concerned about ISPs blocking access to their content or services or reducing the priority of their traffic.

According to the Globe and Mail, the new Canadian federal Industry Minister says he is open to scrapping restrictions on foreign ownership in telecommunications.

The telecom review panel, appointed by the Liberal government almost a year ago, will present its report today to Mr. Bernier. It is expected to call for a more market-oriented approach to the sector, a view that is sure to get a sympathetic hearing from the business-oriented minister.

For telephone companies, which fall under Industry Canada’s jurisdiction, and the cable sector, which is in Heritage Canada’s domain, foreigners can own a maximum of 20 per cent of an operating company and one-third of a holding company. That means an effective cap of 46.7 per cent.