Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 31, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B4 BUSINESS BUSINESS EDITOR: SHANE MINKIN 204-697-7308 ? BUSINESS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM B4 THURSDAY DECEMBER 31, 2020 Are you willing to pay for email? How about podcasts? IT'S that time of year where we make predictions about what to see from technology in 2021. We already know we're good for new iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones, new smart speakers from Amazon and beautiful new smart TV sets that will have higher resolution than ever before - at a lower cost. So let's offer up some tech predic- tions about what else we might see. Let's start with a given: You'll be paying for email in 2021 The world's most popular email program Gmail, is owned by Google, which has decided to follow in Apple's footsteps by getting more people hooked on monthly subscriptions. (Ap- ple's Services - which includes Apple Music, News and iCloud - is now its second highest revenue generator, above Macs, iPads and Apple Watches.) As of June 1, Google will no longer allow users to upload their photos and videos to Google Photos for free. Google offers 15 GBs of free storage for photos, but that also includes Gmail and Google Drive backup. The ask is that you pay for storage, which starts at US$1.99 monthly - but for just 100 GB of storage. I don't know about you, but my Gmail is 41 GBs worth now, I have 15 GBs worth of photos in Google Photos and 1.7 TBs on Google Drive. Sure, I can clear out Google Drive, but the thing is, my email is a living, growing thing that is just not going to get smaller, no matter how hard I try to clean it up. It grows every day. So if you like your Gmail, get used to it, you might be paying. Microsoft and Yahoo still offer free email, but they're littered with ads, and you're encouraged to step up to the "premium" versions, which starts at $5 and $3.49 a month, respectively, to go ad-free. Yahoo is eliminating the ability to automatically forward emails from Yahoo Mail, beginning next week, unless you spend US$34.99 yearly for the service. 5G won't get any better until late 2021 The launch of new phones with ac- cess to the supposedly faster wireless speed of 5G, and the wireless carriers breathless hype about faster speed left many consumers scratching their heads. The promised speeds were no faster than 4G. One day 5G will live up to the hype, but not until "late 2021," believes Gene Munster, an analyst and investor with Loup Ventures. For real progress, we'll have to wait for 2022. Local retailers will find a way to compete with Amazon It's an aspirational wish, but "some- one will solve the need and find a way to fill it," says Kieran Hannon, the chief marketing officer for OpenPath, a company that offers next generation office entry technology. He believes a service will be developed to help local retailers compete with the Amazons of the world by letting customers order from a direct website serving locals and have products delivered to them at home, thus keeping sales in the neighbourhood. Zoom and video meetings will only get bigger Business travel may start to come back from the dead in the second half of 2021, but all the companies that saved money from the trips won't like- ly be as eager to send staffers traipsing around the country when meetings can be done cheaper and more efficiently via video meeting. Students will one day return to the classrooms, but company meetings, seminars, webinars and the like will likely continue. No need to return those ring lights to improve your ap- pearance yet. Speaking of Zoom, a possible acqui- sition? The video networks is one hot prop- erty that saw its usage numbers climb from 10 million to 300 million post pan- demic, making it one prime acquisition target. Who better to buy Zoom than Amazon? The companies already work together, with Amazon Web Services providing the server backbone for all those Zoom meetings. Unlike Google, Apple and Facebook, which have their own well established video networks (Google Meet, FaceTime and Messen- ger) Amazon doesn't have one. So with Zoom in the company, and all those meeting minutes (some 2 tril- lion, in April alone), what an attractive target that would make for Amazon to remind us to use Alexa and buy more stuff, right? Pay for podcasts? Finally, Munster from Loup Ventures believes Apple will follow its smash success with the Services division by introducing a new way for podcast- ers to make money on their shows by charging admission. He sees a "Pod- cast+" that sees everyone's favourite audio shows (like Talking Tech) added to the Apple One bundle with Apple Music. "Good news for podcasters, who may see Apple as another avenue to monetize their listener base." - USA Today JEFFERSON GRAHAM TINY TELCO Provincial Tel prides itself on its customized solutions and customer service W HEN it comes to land-line telephone service in Manitoba, most of us believe there is an oligopoly and that we have no choice but to deal with Bell MTS, Shaw and Telus. But there are other options. Provincial Tel, which started in Winnipeg in 2006, is one of a handful of local do-it-yourself telcos that have built their own networks and work hard to carve out a little bit of business for themselves. One way Provincial Tel founders Su- rinder Pal Singh and Russell Ochocki have found their business is by custom- izing service offerings. With a customer base that now num- bers 300 - mostly small businesses as opposed to residential - its broadband connected telephony services is now available in 160 communities in the province with co-location infrastruc- ture with Bell MTS in both Winnipeg and Brandon. "It is all our own network co-located inside MTS," said co-founder Singh. "They don't like us very much. But that's fine. Competition is good for the end consumer." As the COVID pandemic is wreaking havoc across the economic landscape, Provincial Tel has lost some of its customers even while word-of-mouth demand has been growing. During this unusual economic dynamic it has also come up with some innovative service offerings that are right for the times. Working with the Microsoft Team video collaboration platform, Provin- cial Tel has built a software integration that will allow users to use that MS Team platform as their own phone. Their new integration, called Pro- vincial Tel Cloud Voice, allows users to make and receive calls via Microsoft Team turning their desktop or laptop into a telephone, when necessary. As a lean four-person operation, there is no budget for a splashy adver- tising roll-out, but already they have done a couple of installations including a small financial services company that wanted to do away with handsets for its staff. The Cloud Voice service fits in to the kind of quirky service offering that Provincial Tel prides itself in. For instance, although it does not provide wireless mobile services, it can plant a second (or multiple) extra numbers on a cellphone without the need of a SIM card. It can also plant a 204 area code on phone that does not enter the province of Manitoba. They have some call centre clients that use that service as well as grand- parents overseas who can call their family members in Winnipeg like a local call. Singh and Ochocki say many of their customers are small business owners who are fed up, for whatever reason, in dealing with the big telcos. "It's not so much the technical ser- vice, but the customer service they are fed up with," Ochocki said. "Surinder and I sit down and listen." It's that philosophy - and the fact that it took them more than a couple of years to work their way through the regulatory forest with the CRTC to become a registered telco before they signed up their first customer - that allows them to work with clients who have been financially hard hit during the pandemic. "Every customer comes to us with a unique need," Singh said. "We are successful because we don't just plant our packages down. We listen to the customers' needs and based on those needs and requirements we come up with a solution for them to implement." martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca MARTIN CASH MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Provincial Tel founders Russell Ochocki (left) and Surinder Pal Singh. Singh and Ochocki say many of their customers are small business owners who are fed up, for whatever reason, in dealing with the big telcos. B_04_Dec-31-20_FP_01.indd B4 12/30/20 6:26 PM ;