Today the Globe and Mail came out with an article iQUAKE, going over some basic wireless statistics; 10.1 billion text messages sent in Canada in 2007, 81% of worldwide mobile phones will be equipped with cameras by 2010, and 1.15 billion phones sold worldwide last year, up 16% from the previous year.

There is no doubt that cellphones have rocked the world, but with the launch of the iPhone yesterday in Canada the media is signaling this as a revolution (or quake) in Canada’s wireless market. As a Canadian wireless user I have seen cellphone services decline over the years. This data is fully qualitative– a personal ethnography per say– as I have noticed more and more dropped and failed calls as networks are overwhelmed with the amount of activity happening. With this decline of service, I’ve also noticed that no matter what price plan I pick my bill with Rogers is almost always over $100. In order not to be sued I have to admit there have been a few exceptions (when I was out of town I put myself on the minimum plan and turned my phone off for around $25/month). There is no doubt that prices need to be maintained at a certain level so that telecommunications companies have enough capital to keep up with the rapidly changing technology. But there are a number of flaws in the services that Canadian companies are unveiling as they tap into the new world of mobile web. There are lessons to be learned from the global market.

Service fees that rely on setting limits do not provide freedom for customers. Most Canadian telecommunications companies sell packages that function in a range of limits. You can use x amount of minutes, you can call x amount of friends unlimited, or you can download x amount of data. The new Rogers iPhone plan does not break this philosophy with it’s data plan, and the danger is that this standard that has been set within the mobile web market could leak into the world of broadband internet service plans. Of course, AT&T takes an opposite approach, going for unlimited data service plans. As well, there are no limits when it comes to state boarders and roaming / long distance. Instead of charging unwieldy long distance and roaming charges you can just pay $69.99-129.99 with no hidden fees! I am actually thinking of paying whatever I need to pay to break my Rogers contract and get an American wireless package. You know your countries telecommunications market is in shambles when you have to cross the boarder to get a good price plan.

Canadian telecommunications companies are already talking about selling broadband internet plans with data limits in order to discourage illegal downloading. While the iPhone breaks the boundaries of what websites you can look at on your phone, there is no doubt that this tradition of having unlimited access to the web has inspired the Net Neutrality movement. According the the website neutrality.ca:

It is our belief that the Internet is more than just the physical infrastructure over which it operates. It is a vibrant marketplace and an entirely new format for free expression, even a political landscape and a tool for free organization. Some ISPs in Canada however, are overstepping their role and cannot separate their participation in this network from their component ownership and commercial interests.

Costa Rican cyber-activist Josue Salazar states that for him Net Neutrality is about,

…that if you want to use whatever, you should be able to and no one should tell you not to. you should be able to publish anything read anything from anywhere in the world share etc and no one is supposed to take that away from you. It’s to avoid ISPs blocking traffic in any way (blocking websites, throttling bandwidth (they make torrents impossible to use in some parts of the us (i.e., comcast), or search engines from blocking anything (google blocking Chinese sites etc).

The Net Neutrality movement is growing, and as the original article points out, it’s the tools themselves that Rogers are selling that are forcing them to cave to consumer demands for pricing and other services.