Ted Rogers dies at 75

Here in the Great White North, we get our telecommunications services from relatively few large carriers. Rogers has become, over the course of my lifetime, the nation's largest telecom company. Cable television, cell phones, home phones, Internet access, even movie rentals...you name it and Rogers will be happy to sell or rent it to you.

Because we have so few choices, we tend to really dislike our carriers. We may be known around the world for being polite in that easygoing Canadian-eh way, but tune into talk radio when listeners are whaling on their phone carrier or Internet provider and it's a whole different ballgame. Since Rogers is the biggest of the big bad carriers, it's often the most widely slagged brand.

Rogers the company is/was named after Ted Rogers (wiki), the billionaire Canadian entrepreneur who redefined the landscape. Like the company that's named for him, Mr. Rogers wasn't the most adored person at the party. He was a hard-nosed businessperson in a market sector that eats people and companies for breakfast. Mr. Rogers passed away this morning, and I can't not mark his passing. Love him or hate him, no one can disagree that he changed the way Canadians communicated with each other and built on this country's legacy as a global telecom innovator.

I've often spoken about Rogers the company and Rogers the man. I've studied the innards of this firm and the man who built it since I first became interested in the tech sector. I trust that whoever takes over from him has at least a fraction of the vision that he brought to a market and a country that lacked both all those decades ago.

May the Rogers family know no further sorrow.

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Media note: I've been quoted by Reuters reporter Wojtek Dabrowski here.