The Canadian Telecom Summit kicked off this morning and to open up the event was Rob Bruce, President of Rogers Communications. Competition and innovation was a key topic, so was taking a trip down memory lane. Bruce brought back a reminder of how far the telecom industry has come, gone are the days of the fax machine and dial up, as today we’re downloading spreadsheets from the back of a taxi via our mobile device.
Again, as last year, Bruce reminded the audience that Rogers was the first at bringing Canadians the latest technology. They were the first to release high speed internet, BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, LTE and first to announce a mobile banking partnership with CIBC. What’s next for Rogers and what are they focussed on? Well, Bruce stated that “In the future we’ll see a revolution of application and cooperation.” He was not just talking about the apps that we download to our devices, but that we”ll be “unleashing the power of the services, the content and the experiences that ride on top of the connectivity. I mean shifting our focus from building connections, to create amazing interactive and personalized experiences that transcend devices, platforms, content and networks.”
His presentation had a 3-pronged strategy. M2M (Machine to Machine), Mobile Wallet and Mobile Video. Regarding M2M, Nadir Mohamed, CEO of Rogers, once stated that this “internet of things” is a big bet for Rogers, and Bruce reaffirmed this strategy. Rogers already has several initiatives in play, such as automated parking meters, plus their Rogers Home Monitoring System, and by 2015 this world where “machines talk to each other” will grow in Canada to over $400 million of network revenue.
Regarding mobile banking, Rogers stated that “in just a few years the digital wallet will be just as common as a camera on a smartphone.” Soon we’ll be banking by phone, and storing loyalty cards are our device. When this mobile banking frenzy will officially launch Rogers, and other carriers, will have space on SIM cards for “rent” and will charge card issuers for this space, but will not cost consumers anything.
Bruce quickly talked about mobile vide and it’s one of the “most exciting and interactive opportunity” for them. “As players in the mobile video space, we should be aware that this more of a sprint than a marathon – we must position ourselves for a wild wide.” Rogers will continuing to bring live content to Canadians on all platforms, tablets, PC, XBox and smartphones. An interesting stat that came out of his presentation: For the first time ever the world passed one zettabyte of mobile data. Bruce stated that the number will double every two years.
“Our job is to predict the future… capture it… conquer it… and then empower our customers to get the most out of it.”
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