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From car phones to smartphones: Canadian wireless industry marks 25th anniversary
September 20th, 2010 a 10:51am
George Fierheller, Cantel's first CEO, in front of the company's original headquarters in Toronto.
As summer officially winds down, it was 25 years ago this summer that Cantel (later known as Rogers Wireless) began offering cellular service in Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton and Oshawa – the foundation for what would soon become the world’s longest contiguous cellular network (Windsor through Quebec City) only a short time later, and the wireless network we know today.
Most of us can’t imagine a world without our cell phone. For many, it’s the first thing they check when they wake up and the last thing they look at before bed.
But it all began with just a few thousand subscribers back in 1985 using what was then a brand-new – and unproven – technology.
Bob Berner, Rogers Executive Vice President Network and Chief Technology Officer, joined Cantel as employee number 41 a few months before the Canada Day launch in 1985.
I sat down with him to look back at the historic event. Here are the highlights from our conversation.
Can you describe what it was like to work at Cantel in 1985 as the network was launching?
It was an exciting and risky proposition because nobody at that time had predicted the success of the industry. Everybody who came to the company in those days was taking a big risk. Cantel – which got its license in 1983 and started deploying networks in 1985 – had big aspirations and attracted people to the business who actually thought it there was huge potential for growth. From an employee standpoint, it was great fun. It was a young organization and people took the risk of coming here without knowing how it would turn out.
We never thought that Cantel would be as big as we became. We predicted that there were going to be 10,000-15,000 customers in the first year when the telephone companies were only predicting a couple of thousand. So we built our networks with much more capacity than the telephone companies. Immediately on launch, they had way more customers than they could handle and they had a terrible mess. Cantel was in a much better situation.
Looking back, we all like to poke fun at how large and clunky the phones were. I can’t seem to get Michael Douglas in Wall Street out of my head. What was your first phone like?
My first phone was a Mitsubishi car phone. It was on a cradle on the dashboard with the amplifier in the trunk and the antenna installed on the roof. Most phones we sold in the early days were car phones and had to be installed – they cost between $2,500 and $3,500 all in. There was also a bag phone version you could get, which was essentially a car phone in a satchel. Transportable phones soon became available – they were full-power, 3-Watt phones with a big battery and carrying handle attached – sort of like an army radio. The first handheld portable phone we sold was the Motorola 5000. That was an incredible piece of technology for the time and they sold for about $5,500 in Canada –that was real money back then! These phones now seem so large and clunky compared to what we are accustomed to today, but were they ever durable!
Who were the Cantel customers in 1985?
The earliest adopters are similar in any technology industry: they’re high income people who use the service as a convenience, plus forward-looking enterprise customers who believed that being connected will provide advantages in sales or operations over their competitors. Our first customers were leading-edge consumers ‘of means’ who were trend setters as well as forward-looking business customers.
What was the perception of the cell phone industry when it first launched? Were there concerns this thing wouldn’t catch on?
Well, it was initially broadly viewed as a niche business with limited growth potential. It was a whole new paradigm: paying per call. It was very uncertain whether very many people would pay per call in North America and pay a lot of money for their device. So if you take a look at what happened to really accelerate penetration in the marketplace, the industry began to subsidize handsets in order to reduce the price of entry, and to create price plans that had buckets of minutes to make the service cost more predictable.
What role did Ted Rogers play in the launch?
Ted was always the catalyst to pretty much everything. Big picture thinker, he was among the first to recognize the potential of wireless. And he always thought of the tactical stuff too. For example, he recognized that we should quickly build in the Muskoka cottage country north of Toronto. Everyone thought he was way out there, but he said: ‘Look, this is where the executives and the decision makers have their cottages. Those people are managers and executives and owners of companies, who will make business decisions based on how they perceive the value of the product. And if it works in the places they go, then they’ll want their people to use the service — because it’s all about mobility and coverage.’ Based on Ted’s long experience in Radio, he knew that to be successful, coverage and quality of signal were everything.
What has been the one striking change or thing that occurred over the past 25 years in the wireless industry?
The impact of digitization has been enormous. We wouldn’t have had the radio spectrum capacity to handle this number of customers in urban markets without digitization. Based on a country or a region, the frequencies may change but the fundamental technology becomes global in scale. That’s driven entire levels of economic growth just in creating the technology, let alone using the technology. It’s quite remarkable.
What was your first cell phone? Were you on the Cantel network back in 1985? Tell us your story.
Richard Bloom is a regular contributor to RedBoard.
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Rogers was such a terrific company throughout the 90′s. You really need to ask yourself what happened. These days, it’s getting worse and worse. Zero communication with customers, late product releases, zero customer service unless you are a new subscriber that hasn’t signed a contract.
You can’t even upgrade your phone by calling into Rogers anymore. Your now forced to physically make a trip to a store.
Every golden era needs to end I suppose. Ours seems to be ending with prices twice as high as they should be, and service half as good.
the store upgrades wasn’t done to disservice people, it was done to give better service, reduce costs and prevent the massive amount of wireless fraud hitting Canada.
Hi, I started building the network in 1988 and they first gave me a Mitubishi MESA55 transportable, it was a huge phone in a satchel.
It’s still fun to build the network today with new technologies.
long live Rogers.
loll
Ah reminiscing.. now, git movin lol. Expand
I started working in the Cantel Call Center at 2300 Yonge Street in Toronto in 1986. The customer calls were predominantly for credits due to dropped calls or when they could expect coverage in their area. I’m curious as to the reason for the majority of today’s calls?
Company trinkets were abundantly available for employees either at a minimal cost or free of charge and everyone had the latest Cantel umbrella, sports bag, sweat shirt (pants if you wanted them) etc.
Our first personal phones were purchased through payroll deduction and mine was a Mitsubishi Fixed Transportable, more fondly known as the Mitsi Mesa 95 F/T. The cost for the phone was around $1250 and the payments were spread over two years however the airtime was free. Wow how things have changed!
Oh and incidentally I still have that 3G phone sitting under my desk at the office. I was going to recycle it in the Phones for Food campaign but I just can’t seem to part with it! Perhaps it could adorn a shelf in a Rogers museum?
Just thought I would share my memories from the early cellular days!
I’ve been a Rogers customer all the way back when they were called Cantel. It’s changed over the years some good and some not so good. I do see a roadmap of Rogers forging ahead with new technology such as upgrading their network to provide 100 Mbps over HSPA+, expanding their HSPA+ network to other remote parts of Canada and possibility of offering live TV programming Nationwide over cellular internet instead of using cable. As well as being more competitive with their advertised plans for families, businesses and single customers. In regards to immediate change I would like to see Rogers reinstate upgrading cellphones through call centres since not every Rogers customer has internet access to order online and not every Rogers customer lives near a Rogers Plus store. For those with access to internet customers should be able to order the iPhone 4 online and not be directed to a Rogers store who then directs the customer to Apple who then directs the customer to Rogers again. Related the iPhone 4 Rogers needs to have a serious talk with Apple regarding iPhone 4 stocking issues for Rogers customers. Apple hasn’t been able to keep up with demand in Canada and knowing this Apple is still planning to launch the iPhone 4 in China, Philippines, Turkey and Israel later this month. Dealers should be getting at least 100 iPhone 4 per store, not 2. Since Apple can’t meet Rogers customer demand how about Rogers extending their $30.00 6 GB data plan till December 30, 2010 instead of to the end of September?
Hi Imagine,
Thanks for sharing your feedback and experiences.
With regards to your question at the end, we don’t have any additional information at this time but we consistently review our plans to ensure they’re offering the best value to our customers.
Cheers,
Richard.
Although I wasn’t born ’till 87, my first cellular was a Motorola V100 in 2002. Since then I’ve owned about 20 devices… it’s an expensive hobby lol
My first cell phone was in 1994. By today’s standards it was huge, but I remember a friend running around the office saying “It’s so little!”
Fortunately, those days are past, and today even wireless Internet is nearly ubiquitous thanks to companies like Rogers. Unfortunately, our choice of handsets and what we can do with them is artificially limited and centred on subsidies, when we’d be better off buying our own handset up-front from the free market.
It must be a sign of success when our product goes from being viewed as one for the ‘wealthy business niche’ only, to a “must have” for anyone and everyone, aged 12-112 (with an upgrade every 6 months, please!). I’m a Rogers employee, and have been since 1988. I recall in 1989, Cantel celebrated it’s 100,000th customer subscription. (Big party held for all Cantel employees!) The standard consumer plan was $30.00/month. This gave you 30 local minutes per month. Every minute over that cost $0.50.
I send this to “Bgrant” who is probably enjoying a much better price plan than the one mentioned above (and who seems to be under the impression that a company’s shortcomings are “the company’s” fault – versus the responsibility of the people WITHIN the company) and to Rebecca who should never let go of her “Mesa 95″:
I dug up my Cantel Employee yearbook (1988) and found the following President’s Message (George Fierheller, pictured above) inscribed in front cover. Note: we should be proud that, 22 years later, many Rogers employees still embrace this message as their code of conduct:
“Cantel is more than a collection of switches, cell sites and Service Centres. What makes this company come alive is our spirit.
Our people continually inspire each other to greater heights of creativity and accomplishment. You can’t place a dollar value on what this means to a company, but it’s what makes us so formidable.
You also can’t place a dollar value on what it means personally to be able to work with people of such spirit.
To all Cantel people, thank you.”
Speaking as a *customer*, your message wasn’t very inspiring. Rogers is in a distinct position. Your products have an impact on society, and the impact of the wireless Internet, with ubiquitous access and devices, is likely to be much more important than the current Internet. Making sure Canadians and individuals have access to this technology not just as a consumer or user, but also as an innovator and contributor to the quality of life, is something I hope Rogers employees also consider. The ability to criticize and suggest, connect and measure are all going to be key in the general information society for young and old, way past what Facebook wants us to do.
The way there is inexpensive, unconstrained plans that cover most people’s needs, and the freedom to choose their own device and applications to run on the wireless network, to enable the kind of innovation we see on the “wired” internet. Unfortunately all I see from Rogers today is a limited selection of locked down, overpriced smartphones, and crass advertisements appealing to teens (no offense, teens). I truly hope there is some real vision in Rogers past the internal team.
*invoking Ted’s slogan* The best is yet to come. Eh, board?
@ Ann, well inspired
@ all, nice reading on all your comments; ahhh some history …
@ Cantel people … Welcome yourselves to new you “Rogers”. Three cheers to Ted!
Hi everyone,
Thanks for sharing your stories — keep them coming! :)
Richard.
I bought my first cell phone in 1990 for $1100. It was a Novatel PTR 800, activated on CANTEL. I was just a kid who had to have the latest telecom toy. The Evening and Weekend option was $65 and it cost $50 to add it to your plan! I recall my bills being aprox $300 a month! 5 years later, I moved to Toronto and went to work for CANTEL. I recall the first phone for $0, and launches for Amigo and Digital PCS. How incredible it was to have Call Display on your Cell!! In 1998, I had an opportunity to use the first Blackberry and haven’t put one down since. Since then, Rogers has brought us numerous technical advances in short order. Canada is incredibly lucky to have had a visionary like Ted Rogers. He contributed greatly to our Country, and is sorely missed.