WHILE WE DEFINITELY WILL cover news as it happens on Cartt.ca over the next two weeks, our newsletters (and the hard-working writers who fill them with newsy goodness) are taking a holiday break. Today's edition will be the final regular newsletter until January 8th as those of us at Cartt.ca pause to celebrate Christmas and the New Year.
If there's REALLY BIG news over the holidays, we'll be on it of course, but the whole industry usually gets a bit quiet between now and the back-to-school week, so that’s when we schedule our break, too.
As every year, we’ll be pretty busy right away in the 2013 as Cartt.ca consumer electronics editor John Bugailiskis will once again be on the floor at the world's largest consumer electronics expo, the International CES show, filing daily reports, so look for some special alerts the week of January 7th. His focus, as it is every year, will be on technology and new developments that directly affect the cable, radio, television and telecom business, with our usual Canadian slant.
On the regulatory front, expect the new Bell Canada application to buy Astral Media to be made public in January (with a hearing in April) while on the telecom side, the wireless folks and Canadian consumers are getting ready to debate just what a national code of conduct should look like beginning February 11 in Gatineau. March will see both the annual CFTPA Prime Time conference in Ottawa, as well as Canadian Music Week, both key industry events.
As well, the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction will happen mid year and in mid-June the CRTC will go on the road to the far north to talk telecom in those regions, right after the Canadian Telecom Summit and Banff Media Fest.
As well, watch for our popular Cartt.ca IN-DEPTH and Cartt.ca INVESTIGATES publications to continue through 2013. Despite little action so far, we haven’t forgotten how our industry still lags the rest of the world in getting broadband to low income families, something some of us have dubbed Canadian Broadband For All (#cdnbb4all). That will be a major story for Cartt.ca in 2013 as things are beginning to happen behind the scenes, finally.
So, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or best wishes for whatever goodwill celebration you may hold dear at this time of year.
And to all of our readers and advertisers, we thank you so much for your support throughout 2012, all the best in 2013.
Greg O’Brien
editor and publisher
Cartt.ca
