TORONTO – Keying off an internal CableLabs research paper, a Wall Street Journal report said yesterday that cable operators may need to spend billions on more rounds of network upgrades.
The newspaper story (subscription required) quoted the leaked document from Cable Television Laboratories – the cable industry’s R&D and specifications arm – saying that broadband video growth at places such as Google and YouTube, coupled with the multibillion-dollar spend by Verizon to get fibre to the premises and roll out digital television, will require CableLabs members to dig into their wallets for yet another rebuild.
The story also…
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SIGNIFICANT. MARKET. POWER.
Those three words appear all through the Telecom Policy Review Report, which Cartt.ca has covered at length. According to my search of that document, the three words appear together 62 times, and a further 65 as its SMP acronym.
When reading that huge report, it’s easy to see how SMP was and is a very big deal to its authors. The Telecom Policy Review Panel was very conscious of the concept and how the companies with SMP might still have to be watched. It’s a key concept of the report.
But you wouldn’t know it from…
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THE FOOD INDUSTRY WAS never this exciting, says Videotron president and CEO Robert Dépatie.
In the 1990s, he was in charge of the Planters brand in Quebec and prior to that, held positions with Heinz. The sheer volume of food processing technology was nothing then as compared to what his cable company faces today. The acronyms are endless: VOIP, VOD, HDTV, iTV, IPTV, DOCSIS and so on.
Last week, the MSO launched its own branded wireless service, riding on the Rogers Wireless backbone, giving it a fourth valuable service option and allowing a family’s entire telecom bill, beginning to…
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MONTREAL – With former vice-president of its Quebec division, Jules Grenier, off to Portugal to run the company’s recently acquired new division, as reported by Cartt.ca, Cogeco Cable promoted Jacques Gravel to the company’s top Quebec cable job.
Gravel, an electrical engineer, joined Cogeco in 2001 as VP technical operations from Bell Canada where he held various data and voice managerial positions.
As VP Quebec, Gravel will lead Cogeco’s residential sales, network operations, client relations, service, programming and community relations.
Cogeco has 244,000 basic cable customers in Quebec.
www.cogeco.ca
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable announced Monday that the download speed of the company’s standard high speed Internet service will increase from a maximum of 7 Mbps to a top speed of 10 Mbps.
The boost will happen in all areas the company offers Internet service.
The download speed for its Pro service will now increase from a maximum of 10 Mbps to a maximum of 16 Mbps.
“Every day, the need to access information and multimedia files grows substantially, and our customers don’t want to wait while they download music, videos or other types of files,” said Ron Perrotta,…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable announced today that its purchase of Portuguese cable operator Cabovisao has been completed.
Cartt.ca has been following this story for more than a year. To access some of the background, type the word "Cabovisao" or "Portugal" in our search bar for the numerous stories. As first reported by Cartt.ca, Cogeco’s Quebec vice-president Jules Grenier is moving to Portugal to lead the new division. No word on who will replace him in Quebec.
"The completion of this acquisition represents a significant step for Cogeco Cable in our strategy to secure growth opportunities for our shareholders, " said…
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TORONTO – While revenues shot up 8%, the return of the National Hockey League and the telecast production costs from TSN meant operating income at Bell Globemedia in the second quarter of this year suffered in comparison to the NHL-free 2005.
Bell Globemedia (owners of TSN, CTV, Animal Planet, Discovery, The Globe and Mail and other assets) revenues for the quarter, ended June 30th were $431 million. Operating income decreased by 17.9% to $78 million, however. For the full six months, Bell Globemedia’s revenues grew 9.3% to $825 million.
BGM’s revenue growth reflected higher television and print advertising sales…
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OTTAWA – With several video distributors now asking to add the satellite radio channels from XM Canada or Sirius Canada to their respective channel lineups, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has asked the CRTC to take a close look at the applications.
Responding to a request made by Bell Canada earlier this year to add the satellite radio signals to its terrestrial TV channel lineups, the CAB said "the application focuses attention on one of the fundamental principles of the Canadian broadcasting system, i.e. the requirement for a predominance of Canadian services, and that therefore a number of matters…
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MISSISSAUGA – Tuesday morning’s topic was plant powering. About what works best and most efficiently – and how to work safely.
The afternoon was concentrated on trying to put a little white ball into a slightly larger white hole – otherwise known as golf.
The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Ontario chapter’s annual golf tournament is growing in popularity and this year 148 members came to Mississauga’s Lionhead Golf Course for the event on July 25th.
Rogers Cable’s Vasile Jerca was first to speak on HFC outside plant powering. Thomas Humphrey of APC’s topic was about essential power requirements for…
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BURLINGTON – Cogeco Cable as added World Fishing Network, GolTV and The Fight Network to its digital lineup in Ontario.
WFN and GOLTV (soccer), owned by Insight Sports, were launched on July 20, in some of the Cogeco Cable territories. Cogeco Cable digital customers are able to sample these two channels for free for 90 days on channel 120 and 122, respectively.
Cogeco customers will be able to see independently owned Fight in between those two in the lineup (on channel 121) for free for three months as well.
www.WFN.TV www.goltv.ca www.fightnetwork.com www.cogeco.ca
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