MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has reached a definitive agreement to acquire all of the shares of Quiettouch Inc., the companies announced Monday.
Quiettouch provides outsourced managed IT and infrastructure services including hosting, virtualization, firewall services, data backup with end-to-end monitoring and reporting, plus enhanced and traditional co-location services. Catering to mid-market and larger enterprises in Canada, it operates three data centres in Toronto and Vancouver, as well as a fibre network within specific business areas of downtown Toronto.
Cogeco president and CEO Louis Audet called the move in line with the company’s strategy of developing the business market.
“This acquisition will enable us to…
Continue Reading
OAKVILLE, ON – According to the Weather Network, this summer will be crisp and clear with a strong likelihood of high definition.
The Pelmorex-owned channel is continuing its HD roll out by launching on Rogers’ channel 586 late last week. The move is part of the network’s HD launch that began last month for Ontario and Manitoba viewers (channel 450 for MTS and channel 767 for Cogeco customers, respectively).
“We’re pleased to bring the new look and feel of The Weather Network in HD to Cogeco, MTS and Rogers customers,” said Maureen Rogers, SVP of television services, in the announcement. “With our move…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – A code of conduct for vertically integrated broadcast and distribution groups, content exclusivity on mobile and the need for a skinny basic package were the primary discussion points discussion during the fourth day of the CRTC’s examination of vertical integration.
EastLink noted during its opening remarks that access to content is a “critical driver” of not only its cable distribution service, but for all of its services, and therefore rules need to be established to ensure equitable access to content.
“Programming services dictate contract terms requiring distribution in high penetration packages, packaging requirements and, in some cases, with the…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Do consumers really want the ability to pick the Jenny Craig of TV packages, a.k.a. the oft-debated, ultra-lean, skinny basic package?
It has been one of the primary questions coming from CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein and his colleagues over the first three days of the Commission’s hearing into vertical integration.
The idea has been bounced around for a couple of years (especially during the fee-for-carriage battles), however it has really taken hold of the imagination of the panel of commissioners this week.
In a nutshell, a mandated skinny basic package would force cable, satellite and telco TV distributors…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – When Bell Canada and Telus each spoke to the issue of exclusive content on Tuesday morning during their turns at the CRTC’s hearing into vertical integration of media and distribution companies, we thought to ourselves: “this, we’ve heard before.”
Telus, the biggest carrier in the country without media assets, is worried the likes of Rogers, Bell, Shaw and Quebecor will make acquiring ancillary content for wireless, online, and any other devices that pop up, too difficult or expensive – or give themselves unfair head starts, much to the disadvantage of Telus and other companies like it.
Allowing the Canadian…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – On August 31, 2011, most local television broadcasters will switch their current analog signals over to digital, Cogeco Cable noted today in a press release.
“Cogeco Cable wishes to inform its television customers that they will not be affected by the transition and that they will continue to receive their channels using the equipment they already have,” reads the press release.
“They will not need to change their actual TV set or obtain any additional equipment for any TV set connected to Cogeco’s cable service in order to maintain their current choice of channels.
“In fact, the transition to digital…
Continue Reading
IN OUR EVER-MORE connected world, there are fewer secrets. People talk, they e-mail, they SMS, Facebook, tweet and YouTube.
They often use those outlets to speculate, pontificate, fustigate, postulate and guesstimate. Which means those “secrets” are sometimes true. Sometimes not. Sometimes educated guesses. Sometimes hopeful. Sometimes fuelled by less than good intentions.
So, it’s a good idea once in a while to take a few of those secrets and rumours floating around and ask someone in charge about them – and also to put the issues of the day facing our industry in front of someone at the top.
For this Cartt.ca…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking for comments on a proposed code of best practices for access programming on cable community channels.
The code, available here, was submitted by the Cable Industry Working Group which was assembled last August and includes representative from Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, EastLink, Quebecor and the CCSA.
The deadline for submitting comments is September 6, and replies are due by September 16, 2011.
www.crtc.gc.ca
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Cogeco Data Services rolled out a new suite of voice and data services on Monday that it says will help businesses reduce complexity and work more efficiently.
The new managed services include a Layer 3 MPLS-based connection with class of service capabilities intended to help businesses prioritize data traffic in an optimal way. The IP-based VPN service allows customers to extend their organization’s infrastructure by connecting multiple locations, such as branch offices, vendors and suppliers over a secure and fully managed network.
They also include a managed Ethernet service, a Layer 2 MPLS-based connection that enables customers to control…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable is launching its Ultimate 30 and Ultimate 50 high speed Internet packages for consumers in North Bay, ON, as well as its new Business Ultimate 30 and Ultimate 50 packages for businesses.
Powered by DOCSIS 3.0, Cogeco says the packages offer advantages in speed and pricing compared to competitors. Ultimate 30 package offers speeds of up to 30 Mbps for downloads and up to 1.5 Mbps for uploads with a monthly download cap of 125 GB. For the Ultimate 50 package, speeds can reach 50 Mbps for downloads and 1.5 Mbps for uploads with a…
Continue Reading
