Bell Launches "Fastest Ever" EV-DO Network

On Friday, I noted that Bell had a big announcement coming first thing Monday. Anyone following Bell has the story by now, so there's nothing breaking about this posting. However, I just wanted to note this for the record.

Off the record, the stars were clearly not lined up for me to on the early side of the news - despite my best intentions. My plan was to be on the 9am analyst call for this, and then post the news as soon as the embargo was lifted shortly after. Well, I was on the call at 9, but was unable to dial in. I have no idea what went wrong, but every attempt failed - either too many people were calling in at once (unlikely - there can't be that many analysts), or there were some problems at the other end of the line. Whatever. Then, before I know it, the bridge is closed at 9:05. Wow! Talk about a short window. So, I missed the call altogether.

That's not so bad, but then not long after, the cable service goes on the fritz, and I'm basically offline until 5pm. So I still don't know the story, and sorry, folks, but it's Halloween, and when you have young kids, it's time to go. That's done now, and here I am, posting about this story some 12 hours after the fact. So, I'm not scooping anyone on this item, but I'm giving you this roundabout accounting of my day to show how with tech, we live by the sword, and die by the sword!

For those of you not up on the news, it was pretty interesting, and I'm sorry I missed the call. So, basically, Bell is launching a 3G EV-DO network - which they claim to be the fastest in commercial service. It's a service that I'm sure will be popular here, and coming hot on the heels of George Cope joining as COO, I'm sure this was timed for maximum impact to let Telus know who's boss. I'm sure Telus is working on something along these lines, but right now, it's Bell making all the noise.

That is.... unless you count Telus's latest news, which must have some of us scratching our heads.

Today's Globe & Mail carried a piece about how well their HR subsidiary - Telus Sourcing Solutions is doing. Can someone please explain to me how and/or why Telus is in the HR business? As the article explains, if it's an area they can make money at, why not? And if they can be successful at this game, I feel obliged to note the irony here given their inability to keep George Cope, the cornerstone of their wireless operations. Right now, it seems to me there are other stories they should be drawing attention to, such as the cool things they're doing with IP solutions for the enterprise market. Ditto for the latest strike settlement news, which isn't great, but let's not go there.