When it comes to advanced 3G wireless we own the podium

Yesterday, I woke up in Stowe Vermont at the end of a nice relaxing ski weekend only to get immediately restressed as I got the skinny (via my Hero) on a Globe editorial lament because Canada is "falling behind" (again) on broadband metrics. Once again the bearer of bad news was the Berkman guys at Harvard. And if Harvard says we suck, far be it for our national newspaper to disagree or check their facts .

What really stressed me was the angst around a lack of 3G leadership. According to the Globe editorial :

• " Canada ranks with Poland, Hungary and Mexico as laggards in the availability of 3G, which allows the distribution of video content over mobile phones and to new devices such as Apple's iPad."

Now for our guys just returning from accolades in Barcelona last week for Canada's 3G leadership this really hurt. Actually we are quite proud of the investments we have made in 3G leadership.

Too bad the guys in the Globe editorial room don't read the full page ads they sell to wireless carriers to promote the flood of new 3G phones coming into Canada.In fact rather than lagging ,we are now leading. There are only 17 advanced 3G (HSPA Plus/21Mps) networks currently operating world wide. And 3 of these are in Canada.And more will be launched in 2010. No other country has 3. Only Finland and Hong Kong have 2 . And, shame,shame, countries like the US, UK, Germany,Italy and France have a collective none .

Hey, Canada is the only country in the world that has 3 different carriers selling the iPhone.

Now arguably we don't have the fastest wireline networks in the world but we lead the G8 in terms of broadband penetration, even before we count wireless broadband penetration. And by next year we will have a new generation of broadband satellite delivering true broadband services.

And let's not get lost in a speed race. Sure it would be nice to say you have 100 Mps but unless you are ripping movie libraries full time, that type of speed is ahead of demand. Speed is important, and we have to continue to invest and upgrade, but at some point speed doesn't matter as much as what you use broadband for.

And Canadians use the Net a lot. According to a Comscore presentation just last Thursday at CFTPA Prime Time, Canada remains a global leader when it comes to using internet video. And another Comscore study notes Canada is a global leader when it comes to online banking.

Now I agree there is still lots more to do, but the clarion call to government to fix what is not broken rings hollow . And it's a waste of time.

Government has a $50 billion deficit .It can't spend in any material fashion . At best it can try to stimulate private sector investment with good policy or undermine it with bad. But ultimately only the private sector can build better networks.

Last year in the middle of the recession TELUS increased capital spending by 10 percent to build a better wireless network.This year we are spending $1.7 billion to drive out hybrid fiber networks that increase broadband speed and support IPTV on the same circuit. Policy talk is nice but real investment trumps talk.

Now maybe we could spend even a bit more if we cut those Globe ads. But even if the Globe never reads their ads, obviously our new wireless broadband customers do. So for now the print guys are safe but they better keep an eye on where our broadband customers are going for news :-)