Archive for March 7, 2015

My Trip To India And Australia: Part 11 – Welcome To Australia

Posted in Tips with tags on March 7, 2015 by itnerd

So, after 16 hours on two different aircraft (a Boeing 777 and a Airbus A380) I am in Melbourne Australia. Now I have to admit that I was dead tired when I stepped off the plane. However two things made up for it. First was Australia customs who had an automated system. Though I did fill out paperwork on the plane (one a customs and immigration declaration and another one relating to Ebola), here’s all I had to do to clear customs at the Melbourne International Airport:

IMG_0979

Because I am on a list of pre-approved countries, I walked up to one of these self serve machines, inserted the photo page of my passport and answered a few questions. It then printed out a card with a magnetic strip and my name on it.

IMG_0980

I then walked up to these machines making sure to stand on the foot prints, inserted the card with the magnetic stripe, looked at the camera in front of me and waited for the gates to open. After that I picked up my bags, handed over all my paperwork and I had cleared customs. If India’s visa and customs process was needlessly byzantine, Australia’s is the exact opposite. Kudos to them for making life easier for travelers.

Now from there, I went and got a SIM card from Optus because as I’ve said many times before, if you pay for roaming with a “big three” Canadian carrier, you’re paying way too much money. In my case, I am going to be here for five days so I got this deal:

  • Local phone number with voice mail
  • Unlimited text messages
  • Unlimited calling
  • 500 MB of data a day
  • 4G coverage

Total price is $2 Australian a day which is slightly less than $2 Canadian a day. Since I’m here for 5 days, that’s $10. You’re never going to get anything close to that level of pricing with a “big three” Canadian carrier. That is why you should always travel with an unlocked phone. It will save you money and lots of it.

Now I took a cab to my hotel which is 45 minutes away from the airport and I managed to get this picture of the Melbourne Central Business District:

IMG_0982

Accommodations are being provided by the company I am working for this week at the Novotel Glen Waverly which is south and west of Melbourne. I have only been here for a few hours and already I am not impressed by something. The Internet access. It is expensive and slow. So I am using the data plan from my iPhone to get around that even though I did buy $20 AUD of Internet access from the hotel which gives me 300MB or 3 hours whichever comes first as a backup. Needless to say, that’s a rip off. I’ll have more to say about that and a few other things about this hotel in my next report.

Seeing as Monday is a holiday in Australia, I will be exploring the city which is something that I didn’t have a chance to do in New Delhi. Some people from the company that I am working for this week are going to take me out on Sunday to explore the city for starters. But starting on Tuesday I will have two solid days of work before I leave for Canada on Thursday morning. Expect a write up about that as soon as I get over the jet lag.

2 Comments »

Winners And Losers In The AWS-3 Spectrum Auction

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 7, 2015 by itnerd

One of the things that I missed out on yesterday was the announcement of who won and who lost in the AWS-3 Spectrum Auction held by Industry Canada. Now that I feel somewhat human after flying to Australia, let me fill you in on the results:

Winners:

  • Eastlink was able to purchase spectrum in Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia & PEI, New Brunswick, and Northern Ontario.
  • Videotron was able to purchase spectrum Eastern Quebec, Southern Quebec, Eastern Ontario and Northern Quebec.
  • Telus and Bell split what was left in Southern Ontario and pretty much took everything else everywhere else.
  • The big winner is Wind Mobile as they dropped $56.4 million on three successful bids in Southern Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. This will allow them to roll out LTE services to their customers and they already operate in those areas which makes life easier. It will also make them very, very competitive with the “big three” carriers as well in those areas. Or at least, one would think so. Though, before you hop over to Wind, it’s going to take them a year or two to get LTE up and running. I’d sit and wait until then to see what they offer.

Absent:

Missing from the auction results was Rogers. I’m guessing that they have other things to spend their money on. Example, their LTE-Advanced rollout. SaskTel and MTS were missing as well. I’m guessing that they didn’t see the point of participating.

Loser:

The big loser was Mobilicity who lost their funding to participate just before the auction. This pretty much confirms that they don’t have long to live. Though, this lawsuit against Industry Canada for a mere $1.2 billion was given the green light to proceed. So they may have some life yet. Although without the spectrum that was on offer today, I can’t see how they could possibly make a go of it long term.

Leave a comment »