My New Blackberry. So I’m writing this post today becuase I got a new phone. It’s touted to be one of the best of the market, and for the most part, it is. The problem I’m having is with something that (I admit) isn’t truly that important to me. Video and audio streaming. I really would like access to the 50 GB of music and 2 TB of videos that I have at home, no matter where I am. Having the unlimited data package that I do, combined with the 700 KB EVDO from Telus Canada, I thought, man I can’t loose! Who needs an 8 GB MicroSDHD card when I’ve got the internet!
Too bad.
So I’ve been reading a lot of blogs on people having the very same problem. Lots of people attribute it to application permissions, or cell towers not having enough bandwidth (bullshit). But the more I look around, the more I see that there are people who were early adopters to the technology who say it used to work…but no longer. As of Feb 2008 to be exact.
That’s shortly after Blackberry launched their video on demand demo service. Free. Also shortly after Youtube launched their mobile video application. Free.
Nothing in this world is free folks.
So say you’re running a telephone company. And you’re raking in the cash on data. $8 – $12 per MB. Wow you’re rich! But people start getting pissy about how expensive data is, because all they really want is email and the odd news feed. For this to cost them an extra $40 per month is retarded. Plus you know just over the horizon is new competition coming out with the sell off of wireless bandwidth. Google. That word scares the shit out of everyone.
You need people to sign contracts. But a lot of people are buying their new phones on ebay now, and somehow getting them activated (even though you don’t have SIM card technology like those other guys). So you decide to bundle up some great personal and business packages and set them off. Unlimited data / email for almost a quarter what it would cost before. You have a flurry of sales. You’re 4th quarter in 07 is great. Astonishing actually, you can’t believe you didn’t do this before.
Youtube launches their mobile video service. Then Blackberry. Oh shit…did we actually talk to any network engineers about this unlimited data thing?
The bills start to come in. And the reports of dropped voice calls on towers in toronto and vancouver. You need to do something fast.
It’s the end of January 08 and you decide to ‘break’ video on demand. But we are not going to actually tell anyone about it, nor will we admit it. It anyone presses the issue say something about the towers not being able to support live streaming yet.
Then we can ‘upgrade’ our towers and offer streaming ‘services’ as a billable service. In addition to your unlimited internet service of course 😉
