Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
Canada is a bit of a conundrum. The country gets a bad rap for being a blander version of the United States, something that as a proud Canada-loving American I sort of have to agree with. Sure, Canadians talk a bit different, may swap around some letters in words and generally make the nicest American seem like a jerk …
… but you gotta love their enthusiasm for curling.
http://youtu.be/IhR_V1PxMyo
Well, RootMetrics this week attempted to tackle the Canadian conundrum by announcing wireless network test results. It should be noted that RootMetrics is based in the Seattle area, which as we all know has a hearty disdain for all things Canadian, and thus colored the attempt.
First of all, RootMetrics conducted its tests in only three Canadian markets: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. This sort of got the whole process off on the wrong foot by RootMetrics insinuating that those three Canadian mega-tropolises are good enough to represent cellular coverage across the whole country, or that there were not enough people in the rest of the country to even bother testing coverage. Both may be true, but come on.
Despite the apparent limited scope of the testing, RootMetrics claims that it conducted more than 71,000 “tests” that included driving more than 4,500 kilometers, which if I am using my Google converter correctly is about 13 miles.
Now, where the testing really gets bland is in the results, where RootMetrics proclaimed that all three of Canada’s nationwide operators basically had the same service in each of the three markets where nearly all Canadians (that matter at least) live. In fact, all the testing really showed was that:
–New upstarts Videotron and Wind have inferior service.
–Canadian mobile service quality is better than in the U.S.
I know it’s not RootMetrics job to make Canada seem more exciting, but would a little bit of flavor in this report have hurt? Why not throw in some stats on the impact nine months of snow had on mobile service? Or how migration paths of polar bears and other human-devouring animals that outnumber people in Canada impacted the number of “kilometers” RootMetrics was able to drive in its testing? Or that the real truth behind the company testing service in only three markets was because, like the rest of us, RootMetrics thought there were only three markets in Canada?
Overall, I gotta say nice attempt RootMetrics, but next time you venture north of the border, make sure you pack a lunch as it takes time to tackle the Canada conundrum.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–Someone has finally come up with an application that the mobile Internet was made for. Now I know I have made such bold claims in the past, but this time it’s legit.
Taco Bell, otherwise known as the place we have all been to at 1 am, but for some reason can’t remember being there, launched a mobile application that allows for patrons to place their order before arriving at the counter or drive-thru window. This of course means less time wasted before shoving down those half-dozen 69-cent bean burritos, which is then washed down with one-half gallon of Mountain Dew.
The folks in charge of this technological leap expressed the advancement a little differently.
http://youtu.be/CewbwirW8ug
Well said, though I have to say that these people talking about the legitimacy of Taco Bell as a real restaurant and this application as something more than just a quicker way to shove alcohol-busting/enhancing food into you face-hole is sort of a bummer.
–It appears that the Federal Trade Commission may have discovered time travel, as this week the government agency came out blasting AT&T Mobility over its throttling of “unlimited” data customers. You know, that thing that everyone got worked up about years ago, but have since sort of just accepted as how it’s going to be?
Don’t get me wrong, I think throttling of anyone is probably a bad idea. Who want’s to be throttled? But, as our own Mobile Martyr Hunter Gates so succinctly put it in a column, “Did AT&T promise unlimited data at a specific speed? I doubt it. How could they? Data speeds vary based on a whole truckload of issues, such as proximity to the tower, network congestion and so on.”
In fact, mobile carriers could argue that customers that signed up for unlimited services would only be allowed un-throttled access to network speeds that were in place at the time they signed up for service, which in the case of AT&T Mobility was still EDGE speeds in some markets.
Again, not trying to defend AT&T Mobility here, but just saying this is a sticky situation that the FTC is (finally) wading into.
–Finally, ZTE this week announced a deal to become the official smartphone of the New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association. There was no mention in the news that the deal would require players to sport ZTE devices, though ZTE’s noted support of local charities is a legit enough reason to cheer the news.
ZTE did tout its plans to increase awareness of its products in the United States, though partnering with the Knicks may not be the sort of brand affiliation a company looking to “win” market share would seem to desire.
http://youtu.be/29TSfNVFpFM
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