THE ONTARIO chapter of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) is seeking submissions on business continuity or disaster recovery planning experience for its Fall meeting and vendor show on October 6, 2009 at the Mississauga Grand.
SCTE members, vendors, and guests are asked to send a brief description of their presentations via e-mail to Daniel Sacolle at Daniel.Sacolle@cogeco.com by September 4, 2009. A panel of SCTE Directors will select the most “intriguing, engaging, and entertaining submissions” for presentation at the meeting, the press release said.
Presentations should be vendor-neutral and between 20 to 40 minutes in length….
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WHILE WE WAIT for the CRTC to decide whether or not Al Jazeera English can be distributed in Canada by cable, satellite and telco TV companies, I already have it in my office.
Actually, I have both the English and Arabic versions, right now, on my television. (No Canadian BDU offers the Arabic version because even though it’s on the eligible satellite list, the regs around it say that BDUs must employ Arabic language censors to monitor it 24/7, if they want to launch.)
And yet, here they both are, in standard definition, full-screen quality, on my 30-inch LCD television thanks…
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HAMILTON – After half a century in cable, Owen Boris decided this year, at the age of 77, it was finally time to retire.
In July of 1959, Boris launched Mountain Cable in a brand new Hamilton subdivision where aerial utilities (phone and power) weren’t allowed, meaning his system was one of the first, if not the first, to go underground.
Just prior to the launch of the cable company, Boris had been a member of the engineering team who helped create the famous, and infamous, Avro Arrow jet. When that project was killed, Boris needed something to do. He had…
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CALGARY – The rumour mill had been spinning wildly over the past couple of days in Hamilton about the impending sale of Mountain Cablevision, but the buyer, announced this morning to be Shaw Communications, is a bit of a surprise.
Based in Hamilton, Ontario Mountain has approximately 41,000 cable customers and has been very successful adding services, too, with 28,000 Internet subscribers and 27,000 telephone customers.
The purchase price was not announced, but a cable company in the lucrative southern Ontario market with this many revenue generating units, expect the price to be north of about $300 million, sources have told…
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TORONTO – In a note to clients, BMO Nesbitt Burns media and cable analyst Tim Casey notes the Shaw Communications purchase price of Mountain Cablevision may be as high as $300 million (a whopping $7,300 per sub).
While saying the impact of the purchase is “slightly negative” for Shaw, Casey notes that industry contacts “have speculated a price in the $300mm range, implying roughly 12x EBITDA,” he wrote.
“The transaction is a surprise given Shaw’s Ontario assets are in Sault Ste. Marie, Kenora and Thunder Bay. We expect operating synergies will be limited.
“Given Shaw’s industry-leading track record regarding capital allocation, we…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has launched a new high-speed Internet package (HSI) in Ontario that will allow customers to achieve a download speed of 50 Mpbs, 1.5 Mbps upstream, and a monthly capacity of 150 GB download.
Called the ‘HSI Ultimate’ package, the service comes with Cogeco’s "full range of security services” and includes the modem rental. It is initially available to customers in Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Halton, ON, but will “progressively be available” in all areas served by Cogeco in Quebec and Ontario in the coming years, the press release said.
"This new Internet package shows our constant concern to…
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GATINEAU – According to the Campaign for Democratic Media, the CRTC’s hearing into network traffic management is about nothing less than “who will determine the way we use the Internet,” David Fewer, acting director of CIPPIC told commissioners Thursday morning.
Leaving network management practices up to the discretion of the networks owners can only invite disaster and make Canada “a backwater of online innovation,” he added. “The Canadian Internet is not simply the private property of Canadian ISPs.” (CIPPIC is the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic and a member of the CDM.)
While that may be true…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has added eight new high definition channels to its Quebec programming line-up, bringing its HD channel total to 32.
Télé-Québec HD, Canal Évasion HD, TV5 HD, PBS HD, Mystère HD, The Score HD, National Geographic HD and Discovery HD are available immediately in most Québec regions where Cogeco provides digital and HD television, the press release said.
“Cogeco Cable is committed to enriching our customers’ television viewing experience”, said Ron Perrotta, VP of marketing and strategic planning, in the release. “Adding these eight HD channels to our Québec HD offering allows our customers to discover theoutstanding…
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GATINEAU – In back-to-back presentations this morning, the CRTC heard from two of Canada’s largest ISPs, Telus and Cogeco Cable, one of which uses no Internet traffic management techniques (yet) and one which uses them all the time.
Each want the same thing, however: to be left alone to manage their networks how they see fit.
Telus, the big western-based telco, uses no traffic management technology right now on either its retail consumers or wholesale business clients, said senior vice-president of regulatory and government affairs Michael Hennessy. But it wants the freedom to be able to deploy them, if needed, in…
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MONTREAL – While growth in the television and radio divisions powered Cogeco’s Canadian operations, its Portuguese subsidiary Cabovisão pulled down the company’s third quarter financial results.
For the quarter ended May 31, 3009, consolidated revenue increased by 11.4% to $316.3 million, and consolidated operating income from continuing operations before amortization grew by 10.4% to reach $129.4 million.
But after taking in to account various losses at Cabovisão, the company reported a consolidated net loss of $93.8 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2009, compared to net income of $15.5 million in the prior year.
“We have recently realigned our short…
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