Apologies to folks who dropped by the blog today and thought it was July 6 all over again - a Bill Murray mid-summer Groundhog Day if you will. Blogware had some server woes that prevented posts over the past six weeks from being shown but the problem has now been resolved.

After Sirus, XM and CHUM were granted licenses by the CRTC to launch satellite radio services in Canada, there's been little news. XM Canada said earlier this week it had pre-signed 3K customers at a couple events, and today unveiled a retail deal with Best Buy and Future Shop. XM Canada, which is majority owned by John Bitove's Canadian Satellite Radio, plans to invest $100-million to offer the service across Canada. Niether XM or Sirius have announced when their services will be launched or pricing, while it's doubtful CHUM will get into the business.

Given how Google has dominated the technology landscape this week with the release of Desktop 2.0 and Google Talk, Download Squad's Victor Agreda, Jr. decided to install a bunch Google applications (Desktop, Talk, Earth, Toolbar, Gmail, Picasa, etc.) just to see how a Google-dominated world looks like - an exercise that probably appeals to all those anti-Microsoft folks out there. For the most part, Victor is fairly impressed, even though launching Firefox is a little slower and his PC is using more horsepower. The one thing he'd like to see - and it's really only a matter of time - is the integration of all these Google applications into one seamless super-system (a.k.a. a New New OS??). Rick Segal has some thoughts on the adoption of Google Talk, and whether people who downloaded it will actually use it.

CIBC World Markets analysts Steve Kamman believes Nortel could get some more love from Indian wireless carrier BSNL, which is expected to unveil a $3-billion RFP soon. The contract would involve a two to three year period and could provide Nortel with more than $500 million of new revenue. It would also let Nortel recoup some or all of the losses (estimated to be around $190 million) from its first $500-million deal with BSNL. Kamman, however, expects BSNL could use three suppliers (Nortel, Nokia and Alcatel with Nokia being the core vendor), which may see Nortel to lose money on the next BSNL deal if it wants to outbid Alcatel for business. More important, Kamman questions whether Nortel can in the long-term achieve enough scale in GSM in the Indian market. "It is worrying to see this battle coming down to a battle for 10% share in a developing market such as India where today's $9 ARPU's are trending to under $3." As the Dominion Bond Rating Service said yesterday, Nortel's ability to grow revenue and compete could depend on new leading-edge technology - an area that Nortel is looking to reduce as tries to rein in operating costs. As much as Nortel CEO Bill Owens wants to focus on international markets such as India and China, it will be hard to make money from this business if you're selling is low margin equipment in an ultra-competitive market. This is one of the reasons why Nortel needs to seriously look at acquiring companies with bleeding or leading edge technology. In other words, they should examinet Cisco's operating model, or for that matter Google's, on how to enhance your technology portfolio without blowing your brains out financially.