The concept of fixed-wireless broadband service has been a dream since AT&T rolled out its much-ballyhooed "Angel" project five years ago. With all the talk about Wi-Fi and Wi-Max (see Om Malik's posting on how the market is slow to develop), you would think fixed wireless is poised to make a huge comeback. Given this enthusiasm, what does one make of Manitoba Telecom/Allstream's decision to dump its stake in a fixed-wireless joint venture with Rogers and NR Communications, the private holding company backed by Craig McCaw. MTS quietly sold its one-third equity position last month to Rogers and NR for a measly C$8.1-million.
MTS said after doing an evaluation of the technology and its commercial potential, it wants to focus on being a strategic telecom service suppliers. This sounds like a vote on non-confidence in a service that was supposed to deliver IP-based services such as Internet access and voice. Rogers said it is exploring its options, while NR has been silent.
It was only six months ago Allstream, Microcell and NR were confidently talking about how the new joint venture was going to disrupt Canada's broadband market. Now, it sounds like this JV may quietly disappear into the ether.

According to a story in Information Week, Forrester Research did a survey that discovered only 13% of consumers are either "interested" or "very interested" in using Internet telephony sevice. The survey - "Who Wants to Buy VOIP" - found only 3% of consumers are using Internet telephony. The biggest hurdle appears to be price: consumers want to see savings of at least US$15 to US$25 a month before they jump from traditional telephone service.
The good news for service providers is consumers who actually use the technology like it 90% are happy with pricing, 80% like the features and 70% are content with the voice quality and billing. Forrester estimates Vonage is the leading player with 30% of the U.S. market, while Skype and Cablevision each have 13%.

Tyler Hamilton has an interesting posting about the need for local number portability in Canada's wireless market. He believes LNP is important for the wireless industry to stay competitive and encourage carriers to launch new features while offering consumers lower prices.
With Rogers' $1.4-billion purchase of Microcell Telecommunications last year, the industry obtained some pricing stability but lost one of its most innovative and disruptive players. Virgin is expected to jump into the market soon but it's a joint venture with Bell Canada so I wouldn't expect too much excitement there in terms of pricing. Then again, Richard Branson is his own man so maybe Virgin will take over Microcell's role as the industry's troublemaker.

I have to confess I was among the skeptics who thought Google might be ready for a stumble. I couldn't have been more wrong as it posted fourth-quarter earnings per share of 92 cents, compared with analysts' expectations of 77 cents. I guess the advertising/AdSense market is more robust and Google is more of a dominant player than I thought.
To be honest, I was of the opinion Google needed a new growth engine but perhaps the advertising market has a long way to go and Google is going to mine it in a big, lucrative way. Google shares jjumped $17 in after-hours trading, and who knows where it will stop. This is a dot-com boom but in a very, very isolated way.