After several calls to AOL Canada's customer service people, I finally got TotalTalk working - turned out I fell victim to one of a bad bunch of routers AOL has manufactured overseas that would let me receive calls but gave me a busy signal when I tried to make a call. When asked how TotalTalk is doing AOL Canada head Craig Wallace said "it's still early days", which suggests they don't have many customers yet. From what I've used I like TotalTalk's simple set-up process and their customer service people are awfully accomodating.
The company's decision to position it at the high end is puzzling given consumers see Internet telephony as a low-price product. It will be interesting to see how AOL Canada's parent, Time-Warner Inc., prices Internet telephony when it launches in the U.S. Does it follow Vonage and CallVantage into discount territory or go premium like Comcast?
According to Light Reading, AOL's roll-out may be March 16. Light Reading reports AOL's telephony service will use Level 3's network, which is also providing service to Skype.

As I speculated in a posting yesterday, Call-Net shares have popped in wake
the CRTC's ruling that will reduce what the carriers pays to lease service
and facilities from ILECs such as Bell and Telus by $25-million a year. Bay
St. analysts, who appeared to take or leave Call-Net before, have jumped
onto the bandwagon by upgrading their rates and raising their 12-month stock
price targets. The big question now is whether the company is a takeover
target? With all the consolidation happening in the U.S., it's natural that
people will look inward for the same kind of trend. The reality, however, is
Canada has already seen a fair bit of consolidation with Rogers' takeover of
Microcell, Manitoba Tel's deal for Allstream, and 360 Networks' acquisition
of GT Telecom.

Why does it seem that for every step forward Nortel Networks Corp. takes, it takes one or two steps backward?
Last week, the embattled telecom equipment maker made a positive move when it hired Peter Currie as its chief financial officer. Mr. Currie is extremely well-respected within the investment community, and there is already speculation he will succeed Bill Owens as Nortel's chief executive.
And it took another step out of its financial morass by filing first-half results for last year.
But just when you thought Nortel was starting to right itself, it filed a lawsuit earlier this week against ...   more »