I suspect that the word "tested" has a different meaning. When they rolled out
Interac Debit, they first introduced it in Ottawa, then Vancouver, then
Québec, and finally the rest of Canada, including Toronto. Why ? This was
totally new, and they needed to evaluate the resources  that would be needed
to handle the loads. And some of the banks had some hickups. 9I still remember
one bank being "down" for an hour during christmas season, and you can't begin
to imagine the mess it made at a supermarket when customers had put all their
food through, but when came time to pay the amount, their card failed and they
didn't have enough cash to pay.

I do not know if Microcell has access to statistics on calling patterms for
local landline calls. (number of calls, average call duration etc). If not,
they will need to build up solid usage statistics so that they can plan their
network properly.  If you have a senior citizen centre in a cell, and all
grand mothers talk all day on the phone, that will monopolise a LOT of the
limited number of circuits on the cell.

Question to Mr Punter: How much spare capacity does Microcell have in Toronto
? Would a non trivial increase in usage require Microcell to further divide
cells ? Or does Microcell still have spare bandwidth they could open up ?

No, I think that Telus may be a big loser in this. Remember that Telus, whose
natural territory is BC and Alberta, decided to spend the big bucks to venture
out to Ontario/Québec dead against Bell etc. Part of this investment was
geared towards eventually offering local telephone service.

Their infrastructure in BC/ALTA has long been paid for. But they have yet to
get substantial revenus from all the investments they have made on landline
stuff in Ontario/Québec. Remember that this was at a time when telephone lines
were multiplying like rabbits with dial up modems, faxes etc.

Fido can provide voice service with relatively little investment since it
already has a presence. I wouldn't be surprised to see Fido strike some deal
with Shaw since if someone currently drops landline service, the only real
internet you can get is through cable. (no DSL possible).

If Bell/Telus want to remain relevant, they may be forced to allow DSL service
on twsted pairs not associated with voice line. Otherwise they would lose to
cable those customers who drop their landline in favour of mobile phones for voice.

I think that there are interesting times ahead. This will be the true meaning
of convergence, or rather the total opposite: divergence. TV by satellite,
internet by DSL, voice by mobile, instead of everything by cable !