canada

Dana Blankenholm has posted a bit over on ZDNet proposing that Mobile Torrents are the next big thing. She points to torrent software for Windows Mobile and Symbian, mobile torrent listing on TorrentReactor, and MoveDigital's offering of metered torrents. And she posits that, sure as hell, there will be at least one torrent client for Android.

The reason this peaks my interest because I made the decision today to go for a 500mb data plan for CDN$80 per month (compared to the rest of civilization, $80 for a mobile data plan capped at 500mb is ridiculously expensive, but as a Canadian I was pleasantly surprised it wouldn't be more money for less data.) With only 500mb a month, there's no friggin' way I'm gonna start rocking a torrent client on my handset - I'd be into my $3-per-additional-mb zone right quick.

That's not to say the ZDnet prophesy won't come to pass, but it's furustrating to be in a mobile market in which cost is a barrier to entry for new technology trends.

The Canadian Federal Government has announced the rules of an upcoming spectrum auction, and 40 of the 105mhz on the block is set aside for new players.

To be eligible for the bandwidth reserved for newbs, prospective bidders must currently have less than a 10% market share of the wireless market by revenue.

No one knows if Google is at all interested in bidding, but given their announced intention to bid on the 700mhz spectrum in the US and their rumoured interest in an upcoming UK spectrum auction we feel justified in spreading rumours.

If Google were to enter the competition, they'd need a Canadian partner; auction rules stipulate that foreign firms may only bid in partenrship with a Canadian company.

If Google is looking for a partner, I'm Canadian and I'm available. I'll open the bidding at CDN $2.73.