Telecom Trends

Whazzup with the fact-checking in recent editorials on wireless services?

It started with last week's Montreal Gazette editorial and then moved out to the Vancouver Sun. On Monday, the Ottawa Citizen jumped on the bandwagon, substituting hyperbole for facts in expressing its opinion on wireless services.

Last week, I dared to point out that the Gazette ignored facts that didn't agree with its agenda. The Citizen went beyond that stage and just got its facts wrong.

One paragraph was particularly insulting to the software and hardware developers that call Canada home:

Nobody with a cutting-edge product to sell wants to set up someplace where mobile phone and data connections are second-rate and cripplingly expensive, particularly if they're in the information-age industries we prize so highly, any more than you'd build a factory in a place with no roads or rail.

Are they really suggesting that Canada doesn't offer opportunities for communications research and development? Has the Citizen not looked out the window into the nature of industries set up in its own backyard? There are at least a couple people in the National Capital Region who draw paychecks from companies developing cutting edge products, including multi-national firms that could easily relocate elsewhere.

Outside the city of dreams (as a former boss of mine used to call Ottawa), companies like Ericsson continue to expand their Canadian presence. Hundreds of entrepreneurs continue to innovate in companies located in every corner of the country.

What exactly did the Citizen mean by 'nobody'? Is the Citizen suggesting that none of them want to set up in Ottawa, let alone anywhere else in Canada?

Another point. With the OECD having just released its annual communications review, why would the Citizen look at the 2003 report - and misquote it at that?

According to 2003 figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada lagged all other member countries in mobile-phone use with about 40-per-cent adoption; most other OECD countries were at 80 per cent or above.

Besides the fact that the cited figures are 3 years out of date, the numbers refer to mobile phone penetration, not mobile phone use. Fact is, Canadians are among the world's biggest users of their mobile phones. Can we possibly deduce that, despite all of us wanting lower mobile rates, the pricing may be affordable?

Let's look at the paragraph that creatively calls CDMA the cellular equivalent of Betamax - I actually think that is a clever metaphor, but the Citizen wasn't satisfied with leaving it at that. Instead, it proclaimed:

a lack of interoperability with foreign providers makes life difficult for Canadians wanting to take their mobiles abroad, and for foreigners visiting Canada on business.

I don't believe it. Bell and TELUS both offer a number of devices, including the latest Blackberry, that provide global roaming capabilities. Help me understand how are foreign business people have been disadvantaged visiting Canada, just because we only have one GSM company? Is there any research to back this up, or is this another anecdotal tale being repeated to create an image of truth.

Canadians need to have an intelligent debate of the issues in respect of the upcoming spectrum auction. There are good arguments on both sides of the issue. Better decisions are a logical outcome when there is a vibrant discussion of important issues. But can we agree to at least consider the facts?

We deserve more accurate information from our newspapers in presenting support for their arguments.

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