Looks like the U.S. media is catching onto the rumblings that Bill Owens' tenure at Nortel Networks may be short-lived. Light Reading has a story looking at growing speculation in the marketplace about who might be his successor. It raises the idea of Mike Zafirovski, who will be stepping aside as Motorola's COO. It's a nice idea that a high-profile, well-respected executive such as Zafirovski would be interested in the job but I'd very surprised if the next Nortel CEO is not Peter Currie, who was recently appointed Nortel's CFO.

Tyler Hamilton's story in the Toronto Star about Canada's Competition Bureau investigating Bell Mobility for "wireless access fees" is a good reminder on how the three national wireless carriers - Bell, Telus and Rogers - have a cartel-like control over the market
It was bad enough the Competition Bureau blessed Rogers' $1.4-billion takeover of Microcell Telecommunications, which was the small, but most innovative, wireless carrier in the bunch. Whatever Rogers did to convince the bureau that the level of competition wouldn't be affected was a savvy sales job.
Tyler's piece on system access fees put the spotlight on how the carriers apply this monthly charge and sort of claim it involves costs for spectrum, which is inaccurate. Consumers are also plagued by the lack of local number portabilty, which dampens competition because it's not easy to switch to rival carrier. I'm not sure why the CRTC is so reluctant to push LNP into the market given it has a mandate to encourage competition.
Another puzzling issue is how consumers get to choose wireless devices. The way it works now, the carriers offer you several models, and you pick the one that meets your needs and budget. There is no way, however, to bring your own device to the table. A friend of mine wants to use the Treo 650 but he can't because no carrier in Canada offers it. This means he has to use the Treo 600 or wait it out until the 650 is available.
All in all, Canada's wireless carriers are enjoying a nice honeymoon period - profits, revenue and ARPU are rising; there's no signs of pesky competition (I'd be very surprised if Virgin Canada's launch changes anything); and analysts are happy.