0.38 - The guys get started with talk about the news of a potential BCE / Telus merger.

1.01 - Duncan talks about private equity’s interest in Bell and their inability to cut costs the same way that Telus could because they would lack the same synergy that combining Telus and BCE would have, which gives Telus has the ability to bid much higher than other players. 

3.17 - What will the merger mean to foreign ownership restrictions in Canada? 

3.39 – Duncan suggests if the merger goes through there will be the potential for other carriers to follow suit.

3.55 – Canada could end up with 2 or 3 national players which will mean less choice for consumers, higher costs and layoffs.

4.20 – The guys discuss the current environment and the fact that Canada is already priced as though it were in a monopoly situation, can we expect prices to go even higher?

5.10 – Duncan talks about Stephen Harper and the Tories general Western-based roots, they would love to see Eastern-based Bell be bought out by Western players. 

5.53 - Harper is an economic nationalist and has received flack in the past for letting assets such as Inco go.

6.04 – Setting the stage for a national player in telecom will help motivate the government to take down take down international barriers to allow them to eventually ease foreign ownership regulations.

6.27 – The Federal government is encouraging creation of a large national player in telecom that can compete internationally, how will it affect the banking sector?

7.07 – Talk of Telus CEO Darren Entwistle’s rise from regional VP at Cable & Wireless to potentially becoming the King of Canadian telecom if the merger with BCE goes through.

7.46 – The guys wonder how Entwistle will get along with BCE CEO George Cope … 

8.44 – More CEO chat.  Announcement that co-founder of Yahoo, Jerry Yang, has replaced Terry Semel as the new CEO of Yahoo.

9.25 – Semel’s demise came when he didn’t buy Google. 

10.03 – Most companies don’t do well when the founder of the company steps back in as CEO.  The one exception to the rule being, Apple’s Steve Jobs.

10.30 - Talk that Yahoo will get out of the search business and focus on ad revenue instead.

10.52 – Mark suggests the issue with Yahoo is it has lost its personality and become very corporate, whereas Google despite being big business, is still seen as a dynamic, fun company.

12.02 – Interesting that Canadian tech company Cognos blame their luke warm 2^nd Quarter forecasts on the rise of the Canadian dollar.    Conducting research and development in Ottawa has always been cheap, but the rising dollar is affecting the cost.

Audio or text comments for Mark, Kevin and Duncan can be emailed to heytalkingtech@gmail.com.

Our announcer is the lovely Amber Mac and the music is No Mojo by Anthony Stauffer and Holy Smoke which is available on the pod safe music network.

0.27 – Mark is back with Duncan. Kevin has taken the week off but will back next week. The subject of the week is the Canadian Telecom Summit which raised the issue of broadband Internet access, pricing and availability.

1.42 – Duncan thinks tiered pricing, depending on usage, is going to be difficult to implement in the short term. He thinks the answer for the cable companies will lie with Sandvine’s network management service.

3.24 – Mark brings up the lack of competition in the Canadian telco industry.

4.02 – The only reason the Toronto One Zone wi-max service is any good is because no-one uses it!

4.35 – How much will people pay for broadband? Do the carriers have their consumers by the balls?

5.28 – Duncan brings up the public policy issue of equality of access. Fiber tubes could be laid down in the big cities – thus alienating the more rural towns.

6.15 – Mark bemoans the dwindling rate of broadband penetration, due to a lack of innovation, lack of choice, and a low price. Duncan agrees.

7.23 – The guys segue into the wireless market – does Canada need or want a fourth carrier? Quebecor and MTS think it does and wants to be able to buy wireless spectrum. Money quote from Bell’s Lawson Hunter - “Where we you when Microcell was for sale in 2004?�

8.46 – Duncan thinks any outside player should be able to go to the regulator and ask to be sold wireless spectrum to break up the existing oligarchy. He doesn’t think it’ll matter because if the fourth carrier is successful, one of the big three will just buy it out anyway.

10.36 – Mark references an article that suggests Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski will jump ship and go to run Qwest. Duncan doesn’t see it happening, but admits it can’t be a lot of fun to run Nortel right now.

13.21 – The guys discuss a rumour that Nortel CTO John Roese is being groomed as the next CEO. Duncan thinks that is about 3-5 years down the line.

14.02 – He then segues onto another rumour that Intel is slashing its prices by 50 per cent and that the semiconductor industry will grow by just 1.8 per cent in the next 12 months. Mark wonders about the motivations behind Intel’s move, Duncan thinks it’s a reaction to AMD’s “poking of the bear�.

16.10 – He also thinks that Intel feels AMD is close enough to going under, Intel may be able to push them off the cliff. Would the investors let AMD go bankrupt? Duncan thinks the debt is too high for the PE crowd to come in and make money from any deal.

Audio or text comments for Mark, Kevin and Duncan can be emailed to heytalkingtech@gmail.com.

Our announcer is the lovely Amber Mac and the music is No Mojo by Anthony Stauffer and Holy Smoke which is available on the pod safe music network.

0.32 - It’s just Mark and Kevin this week as Duncan is away at a television engagement.

0.47 - Mark is excited to hear Kevin’s take on the big tech news of the week; the official launch of Apple’s iPhone.

1.01 - Kevin really wants one, but disappointed to know it will be locked to which ever network Apple deals with and while it can be used on other networks, a lot of the features would not be enabled.

1.45 - Kevin reminds us the issue with Apple is always supply and demand, they’re great at building hype, but never have enough.

2.20 - Mark asks about the high price and if it will affect consumer interest. 

2.50 – The guys discuss why consumers are willing to pay higher prices.  Kevin thinks the real trend in IT right now is in design, and people will pay a premium for functionality advantages. 

3.58 – A few more concerns with the iPhone to mention, Kevin isn’t sold on the touch screen and thinks it will take some getting used to.

4.15 – The big question, when will Canadians be able to get it? Kevin foresees it on the market before Christmas if Rogers and Apple can strike a deal.  But Mac has a history of holding back products from Canada, such as the iTunes store.

5.12 – Talk that Telus will hook up with W-CDMA network.  It could have leverage in negotiations with Rogers giving them the advantage on the wireless front.

6.14 - Mark talks about his lack of excitement over the eminent $30 Billion dollar take over of BCE and the recent involvement of the Teachers.

7.40 - Kevin talks about private equity firms going after telecom companies.

8.51 – Mark wonders what the new owners will do with it? 

9.26 - Mark thinks private equity firms might also go after Telus and thinks it is a much more exciting story because of the inclusion of Telus Mobility. Kevin thinks it’s a possibility.

10.27 – Kevin wonders about the future if there are changes to the Foreign Ownership Restrictions and the inclusion of big US carriers.

11.10 - Mark talks about his weekend blog post about banning the internet at work in response to several companies including TD and the City of Toronto’s move to ban employees from using Facebook.  Is Facebook the problem or is the problem employers not trusting their employees?

12.40 - Kevin suggests that companies could ban personal web surfing at work but people would still find a way to waste time.  The onus is on the employer to engage their employees.

13.35 - Mark sums it up, it all comes down to whether you get the job done or not.

15.57 - Mark asks Kevin for his impressions of the MESH Conference which happened in Toronto last week.

16.35 - Kevin thought the sessions were well run and a great bang for his buck. 

17.38 - Mark talks about why they tried to keep the price reasonable in order to reach young entrepreneurs and give them the chance to network.

18.10 - Mark mentions reading on Start Up North that the Toronto Venture Group has filed for bankruptcy protection and wonders if there is enough of an ecosystem in Toronto to support the tech start up world?

19.00 - Kevin points out there is smaller pool to draw from in Canada, there are still great entrepreneurs that need to be spotted, and it’s important to keep them with in Canada.

Audio or text comments for Mark, Kevin and Duncan can be emailed to heytalkingtech@gmail.com.

Our announcer is the lovely Amber Mac and the music is No Mojo by Anthony Stauffer and Holy Smoke which is available on the pod safe music network.