What's Inside

• Letter from ED
• Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit 09
• Update on MoMo Global Summit 2010
• Mobile Industry Predictions 2009
• Global Opportunities for Canadian Companies
• Getting Hired in This Tough Market
• BC Wireless Industry News
• Upcoming Events

Letter from ED

First off, I would like to wish you a Happy and Successful New Year!

With all the media attention on world's economic and financial crisis it is easy to lose perspective of the good news in the global wireless world and our industry's own performance and successes in 2008.

We need to focus our attention on the "M" word as in the "Mobile" because I believe that the world is mobile by nature. The 4 billion mobile consumers want to be more connected than ever and no matter what the global economy is doing...The Future is Wireless. My prediction for 2009 is that we'll survive. Mobile advertising will still be a challenge (no significant revenues that is) but some sectors of the wireless industry like smart phones, mobile data solutions, mobile applications and digital media will actually grow and be profitable.

During the past year WINBC, your association, and the BC wireless industry and community delivered more successes and had good stories to tell than the opposite. Here's a quick year in review:

In January we held the Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit, a first in our industry's history, where more than 220 delegates from BC, rest of Canada and the US met, shared opinions and identified new opportunities for R&D collaboration, trade and investment.

In February member companies like Sierra Wireless, Vecima Networks and others attended the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. I attended the event and now, at the end of the year, I can report that I accomplished all three of the goals I had set following the event: invite the MobileMonday Global Summit from Helsinki to Vancouver in 2010 (we're very close on winning the bid), bring Nokia Siemens Networks to Vancouver in May-June, and increase the awareness of our wireless cluster with other strong clusters from Finland, UK, Germany, Israel, and other parts of the world.

In May we participated in the BC Tech Summit as part of the official opening of the BC Canada Pavilion in Beijing. It was a great opportunity to learn more about the largest mobile market (550-600 million subscribers) in the world, to start building some meaningful relationships with the Chinese. I lead the delegation of 8 wireless and 4 new media companies from BC and I am happy to report that all of the participants felt the business mission was a success. For example, GPS Industries managed to sign a $25 million contract over five years with some of the leading golf courses in Beijing for the use of their wireless LBS and mobile media platform. A Chinese delegation is coming to PNWS 09 because of our presence there.

In June the executive team of the Radio Access Division of Nokia Siemens Networks visited us. The second largest infrastructure provider in the world offered us some great insight into the future of wireless networks and applications and met with eight BC, one AB and one SK wireless companies on a one-to-one basis to explore R&D collaboration. 20-25% of the companies raised serious interest and follow up from NSN. Some of the companies that are worth mentioning are Argus, Dyaptive, Tranzeo, Carmanah and Vecima Networks.

In July I visited UK and Scotland and met with some of the innovators and movers and shakers of some of the best wireless and digital media clusters in that part of the world. Some of them are coming to meet with us at PNWS 09 in January.

At the end of September WINBC launched the Executive Roundtables for CEOs and CTOs. It was a good opportunity for the large companies like Sierra Wireless and Canpages to meet with top executives from small to medium size companies like CellMap, Wireless Image, Rx Networks and Mobidia and help us understand where to focus our resources as an industry association. Finding the Right Talent, Dealing with Carriers, Raising Capital and Building Awareness of our wireless cluster in the world were the top four challenges outlined by both CEOs and CTOs.

In November I attended a BCTIA event where Jason Cohenour, CEO of Sierra Wireless, shared his company's amazing story of survival. There is good news coming from Sierra, the largest wireless company in Western Canada (carriers not counting): the company is expected to generate more than $575 million in 2009, they just acquired Wavecom, and best of all for our local economy...they are hiring people!

In December we hosted Jari Tammisto, CEO of MobileMonday Global as part of our bid to bring the Global Summit to Vancouver in May 2010. Together with our local partners, we impressed our guest from Finland and put us on track to beat out New York and Toronto and bring this major event along with 2,500 developers to Vancouver.

Despite all the good news our wireless industry is not immune to the changes in the global economy. We need to acknowledge some of the inevitable losses and bad news we had in 2008.

Of the 5 BC companies that made Deloitte's annual "Top 50 Fastest Growing Wireless Companies in North America" Ascalade Communications had to close doors in the summer. EQO Communications ("The Most Promising Start Up" BCTIA Award in 2006) has downsized considerably and is in the process of selling its assets. According to a December article in BIV, 4 BC wireless companies are looking at restructuring their operations and are laying off some of their employees. NOKIA Vancouver is looking to lay off more than 200 employees. Intrinsyc and others are downsizing their staff as well. We hope that a large brand like NOKIA will actually end up hiring more developers for their software and services side of business in 2009.

WINBC itself is well on its way to becoming a sustainable industry association and delivering on its mission of promoting BC as one of world's best wireless clusters and communities. We have grown our membership by almost 30%, increased our revenues from members and events significantly, lowered our reliance on government support, and most importantly, have delivered more innovative programs and initiatives and better member value in 2008 than in 2007.

On behalf of Robert Forget, Chair of WINBC, your board of directors and myself I'd like to thank to all our members, partners, sponsors and supporting organizations for making 2008 a year of success. We look forward to working with you in 2009, which promises to be an interesting one.

We hope to see you all at our second annual PNWS 09 (January 18-19, 2009).

For a sustainable 2009!

Michael Bidu
Executive Director, WINBC

Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit (PNWS) 2009
Hyatt Regency, Vancouver, January 18-19, 2009

WINBC has worked hard over the past two months to react sensibly to the latest market conditions and to continue to provide the best possible value both for WINBC members as well as the broader wireless community. WINBC has transformed PNWS from a two-and-a-day conference to a one-and-a-half-day event that costs fifty percent less and yet recreates the original program almost in its entirety.

This is your event. It is put together by your industry association and takes place right here in your city. This is an opportunity to hear world class speakers, meet new partners from Western Europe, US and China, engage with the wireless community and get insight into the issues that define your business.

Six keynote speakers will look at the four pillars of the conference: Ideas, Innovation, Insight and Investment and share their opinions with those of you who will participate.

• Anthony Lacavera, CEO, Globalive, Canada
• Dr. Gerry Chan, VP, Terrestrial Wireless Systems, Communications Research Centre, Canada
• Dr. Wang Jing, Chairman TD-SCDMA, China
• Tony Fish, Co-Founder, AMF Ventures, UK
• Thomas S. Huseby, Managing Partner, SeaPoint Ventures, US
• Steven Morley, Former VP Technology, QUALCOMM, US

January 19 will be a concentrated day of quality content, speakers and educational sessions; as well as receptions and networking events. It will feature an exhibition showroom package that maximizes exposure and interaction with attendees. And it will celebrate the achievements of the local community through its Wireless Innovation Awards Gala. Your ticket gives you complete access to all sessions, receptions, meals as well as the Awards Gala.

Get involved today. For more information and to register visit: http://www.pnwsummit.com

2010 MobileMonday Global Summit Bid Update

As most of you know, Jari Tammisto, President and CEO of MobileMonday Global and Lars Cosh-ishii, Founder of MoMo Tokyo were in Vancouver December 10-13 to promote the 2010 MoMo Global Summit. Many of you had the opportunity to meet them at the Momovan Christmas party and in the days following the party, WINBC and its local partners held meetings with Jari and Lars regarding Vancouver's bid to host the Summit.

They remain impressed with Vancouver, its facilities and its wireless and digital new media community. Jari said afterwards that "it was truly impressive how Michael and the community put together a 3-day program with only two weeks notice. It was enjoyable, informative, and engaging." Much of the credit must go to our local partners who were instrumental in providing an excellent experience and in showing that Vancouver has both the world class infrastructure and the experienced teams necessary to host the 2010 GS.

There is no doubt that Vancouver remains the top choice for the host city and we will continue to work with the MobileMonday Global team in the coming weeks leading up to the final announcement at the GSMA Mobile World Congress (Barcelona, February 16-19, 2009).

Mobile Industry Predictions 2009

By Chetan Sharma

Before we get into what's to come, let's do a quick wrap-up of the year that was.

While 2007 was remembered as "the year of the iPhone", in 2008, though iPhone and Appstore again dominated the headlines as "Touch" became the new black, iPhone shared the spotlight with Android and the resurgent RIM. The deafening roar of "Openness" that started to bubble up during Q407 permeated the ecosystem in 2008. Responding to the iPhone, OEMs raced to introduce Touch phones - Instinct, Armani, Storm, N2, Glimmer, Vu, G1, Diamond, Dare, N97, 5800, and others.

Apple reached its 10M goal a full quarter early and Gphone's 1M number was impressive. The Clearwire deal was consummated though it meanders through the clouds of uncertainty. Blyk continued to defy expectations. We made significant headway in energizing the mobile advertising sub segment but the tough problems of privacy, education, control, fragmentation, and user experience remain. LBS picked up steam and mobility started to get into the alternate consumer device universe which with the help of Amazon kindle and PNDs have started a new chain of AORTA devices.

In terms of actual numbers, the mobile industry exceeded 1 Trillion USD in revenues for the first time with services revenue making up 80% of the mix and 20% being contributed by infrastructure, handsets, and misc. Several operators are now exceeding $2B/quarter in data revenues.

Several subscription milestones throughout the year: 50% penetration, almost 4B worldwide, 600M China, 300M India. India and China both added more than 100M subs in 2008. As expected, 3G crossed the inflection point in the western markets (30%+ penetration) while in Korea and Japan, it was getting hard to find people without 3G (85%+ penetration). Mobile web penetration is above 25% and is becoming quite significant.

2009 will be a pretty eventful year from several perspectives: business models, user experience and expectations, ecosystem posturing, disruption, and friction. How are things going to shape up? What will be hot and what will fade into oblivion? How will competition shape up the new sub-segments?

We put some of the questions to our colleagues in the industry. We were able to glean some valuable insights from their choices and comments. This survey is different from some of the others in the sense that industry movers and shakers participate. Executives and insiders (n=200) from leading mobile companies across the value chain and around the world opined to help us see what 2009 might bring.

Read the full survey here: http://www.chetansharma.com/MobilePredictions2009.htm

WiMAX and Wireless Mesh Worldwide Market Opportunities for Canadian Companies

Maravedis, in cooperation with Industry Canada presents an overview of the growing importance of WiMAX and Wireless Mesh deployments worldwide, and highlights of global market opportunities/strategies for Canadian equipment vendors. It looks at some of the fundamental questions underlying WiMax and examines the challenges ahead.

Read the full report here: http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ict-tic.nsf/eng/h_it07896.html

Trade Secrets: Getting hired in this tough market

By Raymond To, Senior Partner, GO Recruitment

There is a lot of bad news out there but don’t get discouraged. Whenever I show up at networking events or at board meetings, I get asked the same question over and over again, "How is the job market?" From where I sit, in the past 30 days, I have had to fire and hire people, sometimes even within the same company! What is even more remarkable is that for our firm, November had the highest number of placements and activity for all of 2008. The message you should take away from this is: companies are still hiring, but they are getting more selective. This means you need to have your "A" game if you are going to out-compete your competition.

What does that mean to have your "A" game? First of all, companies have inadvertently complicated the hiring process by involving more people in the process. Gone are the days of just 1 interview leading to a job offer. Gone are the days when you get to deal directly and at the onset with the Hiring Manager. Now you have people with strange titles like "In-house Recruiter" or "Recruitment Consultant" involved in the process as well. Don't forget HR. They still get involved too.

So my advice is this. First, you need to understand what makes us tick. Then you need to speak our language and be prepared. Since I have worn all of the above hats, let me share some insider's secrets with you:

1. If you are dealing with HR, make sure you present your value beyond the job. HR likes to hire people who will be with the company for a "long" time. A "long" means at least 2 years and possibly 5 or more. HR professionals want you to love the industry of their company. They also want people who want to develop a career within the company. So when you prepare for an interview with HR, make sure you can explain how their industry works. Think about what drives growth or sustainability in their industry. For example, in the games industry, ideas and creativity are likely the competitive drivers. In the manufacturing industry, it is about process efficiency and rules. These two examples are quite different so look at yourself to see whether your strengths match the key business drivers of the industry.
2. If you are interviewing with a recruiter, whether from an agency or an in-house recruiter, be prepared not for a very technical interview, but also to give lots of examples to support your claims on why you are good for the job. For example, if the job requires analytical thinking, give specific examples using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Recruiters are also looking for someone who has reasonable and flexible expectations. So don't project yourself to be an inflexible person when it comes to the role or compensation.
3. Finally, if you are interviewing with an actual Hiring Manager, be prepared to give him or her ideas on how you will solve their immediate problems. The Job description often gives you all the information you need to answer that question. Don't get me wrong that Hiring Managers ignore the other intangible aspects of the job. They do care about them but what drives them is they are hoping by hiring you, you will make their lives easier. They also want someone who they genuinely like because there will be a lot of interaction. This last point is worth stressing because the other two personalities above may not necessarily have to like you given they don't have to live with you.

So be prepared and have fun out there navigating through these interesting times.

BC Wireless Industry News

MDM Team Wins Top Telefonica Award at International R&D Fair
Movisphere, a virtual world games arcade developed by students of the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) Program in collaboration with Telefonica, won top honours in the "Best New Business Opportunity" Category at Telefonica's Second Annual Research Fair, held in November. More than 60 entries were received from Telefonica's R&D Centres around the world.

The MDM program is a full-time professional master's degree offering students team-based experiences focused on project learning in close collaboration with the international digital media industry. It is housed in the Centre for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus, the collaborative educational innovation that combines the strengths of: UBC, SFU, Emily Carr University of Art + Design and BCIT.  » More

RIM to Acquire Chalk Media Corp.
Vancouver, BC, December 23, 2008 - Research In Motion and Chalk Media Corp. announced late last week that the two companies have entered into an arrangement agreement for RIM to acquire Chalk in an all-cash transaction for CDN $23.1 million.  » More

Tranzeo and TRG Sign Joint Development Agreement to Create WiMAX Radios for Indonesia
Vancouver, BC, December 23, 2008 - Tranzeo Wireless Technologies has signed an agreement to jointly develop WiMAX subscriber units for the Indonesian market with PT.  » More

BC Discovery Fund, Audiovox Canada and TELUS Ventures Make $1.85 Million Investment in Rx Networks
Vancouver, BC, December 17, 2008 - Rx Networks Inc. announced the closing of a $1.85 million financing from its existing investors.  » More

Sierra Wireless Agrees to Acquire Wavecom in Friendly Deal
Vancouver, BC, December 2, 2008 - Sierra Wireless and Wavecom announced today that the companies have reached a Memorandum of Understanding providing for a business combination that will bring together these two industry innovators to form a global leader in wireless data.  » More

Upcoming Events

January 18-19, 2009 - Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit, Vancouver, BC
Ideas. Innovation. Insight. Investment. This event brings together technology and application innovators, service providers and other companies and stakeholders in the wireless industry from Pacific Northwest, Asia Pacific, Western Europe, and the world. More information on PNWS 2009 at: PNWS 2009.

January 27, 2009 - The Departments of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and Canadian Heritage Workshop, Vancouver, BC
China Risk Assessment Workshop: Risk Management Tools for the Digital Media Industry. This one day seminar workshop will be lead by an industry consultant who has significant experience with the digital media industry in China and provide insight on doing business in China for the digital media industry (games, vfx and animation). There is no charge to attend but pre-registration is required. Please email Monika.Surma@international.gc.ca by January 16, 2009 to register, and for further information.

February 16-19, 2009 - Mobile World Congress 2009 / Canadian Pavilion Recruitment, Barcelona
MWC 2009 (formerly 3GSM) is the largest wireless telecommunication show in the world and it will be held at FIRA of Barcelona from February 16-19, 2009. For the third time, the Government of Canada will be organizing a Canadian Pavilion at this world-class event. For information: Canada National Pavilion @ MWC 2009.

February 19, 2009 - WIP Jam Session, FIRA, Barcelona, Spain
Jam with us at our day long sessions, or mini Jams. Join our Developer Advisory Group, or become a Discussion Leader. Follow the link to learn more. WIPJAM.

February 20, 2009 - BCTIA's Global Growth Symposium, Vancouver, BC
Exporting is crucial to the long-term growth and success of your technology business. Every step is critical to your success...choosing the market, leveraging partnerships, securing the cash, and finding the right people. The Global Growth Symposium will deliver the tools needed to get you on the path of global expansion. Advanced pricing until February 6: $295 Members | $450 Non-members. For more information and to register visit: http://www.bctia.org/symposium.

April 16-17, 2009 - WiTec Connections, Banff, AB
This is the must attend networking conference in Western Canada for professionals responsible for building, selling and implementing wireless technologies and business solutions. Early Bird Rate expires January 31, so don't delay. For more information and to register visit: http://www.witecconnections.ca/witec/home/.

June 16-19, 2009 - CommunicAsia 2009 / Canadian Pavilion Recruitment, Singapore
The Government of British Columbia is sponsoring exhibition space at the Canadian Pavilion at CommunicAsia 2009. This event runs concurrently with EnterpriseIT, an information technology conference, and InteractiveDME, a digital media and interactive entertainment expo. The deadline for application is January 19, 2009.

Contact Edwina Ramirez, Ministry of Technology, Trade and Economic Development's International Business Development Branch for more details. Direct line: 604-775-2192 or Edwina.Ramirez@gov.bc.ca, www.communicasia.com.