For months, Bell and Telus have said their new HSPA-based wireless network will be
ready for customers in "early 2010." But most observers suspect they
want to have it running in Vancouver at least by Feb. 12, when
thousands will cram that city for the start of the Winter Olympics.
That's because international tourists will be eagerly racking up
long-distance and data charges sending photos and videos from their
smartphones - and some will be toting HSPA handsets. Bell and Telus, as
CDMA-based carriers, had to leave that revenue to Rogers. Well, today
that target for the new network was confirmed in a Bell press release
about its second quarter results.
The release
touted the telco's recent investments in projects, "including the
national HSPA 3G network rolling out in time for the 2010 Winter Games
in Vancouver." At the same time, Bell announced a reciprocal roaming
deal with U.S. operator AT&T, whose GSM network will begin
switching HSPA at the end of this year. A lot of Americans will be in
Vancouver, which means Bell-Telus will get a nice piece of the action
from those with AT&T HSPA-enabled phones, such as the new
iPhone3GS. When the new Bell-Telus network opens, it will mean the end
of Rogers' Canadian monopoly on international roaming from GSM/HSPA
carriers. The new Bell-Telus HSPA network won't handle GSM-only phones,
but as the world increasingly goes HSPA they will see more
international reveune.
There's no word on whether Bell-Telus
will get their hands on the real prize, which is the ability to sell
Apple's wildly popular iPhone. For Bell and Telus, switching to HSPA is
very much about getting a better selection of smartphones than CDMA
offers. So far Rogers has a monopoly on iPhones, which generates lots
of revenue for it (and for AT&T, the sole iPhone carrier
there). For now, Bell president and CEO can only look forward to a
GSM/HSPA version of the upcoming Palm Pre, which Bell will start
selling Aug. 27 for its existing CDMA network. "We've never had a
response on our Website like we're seeing now in terms of bringing the
Palm to the market," he told financial analysts in a conference call,
"so hopefully that bodes well for the company." Bell has exclusive
rights to sell the CDMA version of the Pre here. A GSM/HSPA version
goes on sale in Europe in December. Presumably, it will be on Bell's
shelves when the new network debuts.
HSPA, of course, means more
than roaming revenue. It means for demanding users faster data speeds
-- perhaps as much as 48 Mpbs downlink -- in addition to a path to the
100 Mbps-plus LTE technology in the near future. Which is why Cope
noted that wireless data revenue was the strongest in the quarter ever
for the telco, shooting up 28 per cent over Q1. It now accounts for 17
per cent of average revenue per user, which is why Cope said Bell "look
forward to the launch of HSPA even accelerating that data growth."
Bell
is feeling upbeat enough about the company's finances that that it will
increased he quarterly dividend by 5 per cent starting in October. When
one analyst asked if that could be sustained, in particular because new
wireless operators are about to start up, the CEO spoke about
containing costs and other boring stuff. But he also said he's
"optimistic and very bullish, in fact, on the launch of our HSPA
network and the strategic moves we've made over the last year in our
wireless business that we will be getting our proportionate share of
revenue."
Some other nuggets: You may recall that earlier in the
year Bell bought The Source electronic stores as well as it's half of
Virgin Mobile cellphone partnership. Cope said Thurday that Bell TV,
the company's satellite offering, will be offered in 500 The Source
stores by the end of the year. Video is a key product that can be
bundled with broadband Internet and wireless to subscribers, to combat
similar cable-based offerings from Rogers and Videotron. Bell TV
revenues were up 9.3 per cent in Q2.
Also, Cope acknowledged
that he's keeping an eye on Bell Aliant's project to bring fibre to the home (FTTH) in Federicton and Saint
John, N.B. Fibre to all homes is the way telcos can keep up
with cable Internet speeds and offer IPTV instead of satellite. At least one industry analyst believes Bell
must embrace IPTV to survive. However, FTTH can be
frightfully expensive. In the U.S., Verizon has budgeted US$24 billion
to bring fibre to all homes it serves. So far, Bell (and Telus) are
limiting fibre to homes only in new construction, leaving fibre to
network nodes in other areas. Whether they'll bring it to all homes
will depend on the Aliant experiment. Cope said Bell is watching "very
carefully."