By Lynn Greiner
LIKE VIRTUALLY EVERY COUNTRY in the world, Canada is facing the need to jumpstart its economy to help it recover from the global pandemic. At the Canadian Telecom Summit last week, an international panel of experts looked at the role of AI, blockchain, and 5G in helping countries flourish.
Dr. Thomas Könen, head of the Department for Digitalisation and Innovation with the Federal Association of German Industry, presented the German perspective, much of which may well sound familiar to Canadians.
“Because of the speed of technological development, we are experiencing a problem here – the regulators and the innovators…
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By Denis Carmel
VANCOUVER – Talk to anyone in the telecom industry and they know one of the most pressing challenges facing Canada is connecting our Indigenous communities to proper, and affordable, broadband.
In his Thursday keynote to the online Canadian Telecom Summit, Tony Geheran (above), executive vice-president, and chief customer officer, at Telus outlined the company’s commitment to connecting those communities to fibre.
Geheran went through the company’s various PureFibre, Health, Agriculture and Telus for Good spending, in the billions over the years, connecting millions of Canadians in various ways for various services.
However, what stood out in his speech was the…
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OTTAWA — The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) will be coming out with its annual report this month, but in the meantime, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is bringing attention to CCTS’s 2019 Compliance Monitoring Report, which shows many Canadian telecom companies failed in 2019 to comply with resolutions and in some cases falsely claimed to resolve consumer complaints to CCTS.
“We are shocked, but not surprised, at the companies’ variety of non-compliance with a simple complaint resolution scheme for telecom customers,” said John Lawford, PIAC’s executive director and general counsel, in a press release. “Consumers…
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TORONTO — In what it calls its “Directors Manifesto”, the Independent Filmmakers Committee of the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), chaired by Clement Virgo, is calling for an overhaul of Telefilm Canada and the end to its automatic funding tracks.
“Telefilm is an indispensable part of Canada’s cultural landscape with a dedicated team in place, but their current system is literally built to pick the movies they invest in based on a mathematical formula. We need to put the creative elements back at the centre of project selection,” said DGC’s new president Warren P. Sonoda, in a press release….
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TORONTO — Watching TV and streaming online content aren’t the only ways Canadians have been entertaining themselves during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a new study from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC), a national trade association for Canada’s video game industry, Canadians have been spending more time gaming to stay connected and entertained during these difficult times.
Conducted by the NPD Group, the Real Canadian Gamer – Essential Facts 2020 study provides an in-depth look at the video game player community and consumers in Canada, which ESAC says is one of the world’s largest video game hubs with…
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And why there’s much more to rural connectivity than funding
By Lynn Greiner
AN ADDITIONAL $1.75 BILLION for rural broadband, which the federal government announced this month, is certainly a good step, albeit delayed, in the right direction. But, it’s not enough.
“It’s not a silver bullet,” said Telus vice-president telecom policy and chief regulatory legal counsel Stephen Schmidt during the Canadian Telecom Summit’s annual Regulatory Blockbuster session on Wednesday. “It won’t work on its own… In our view, complementary spectrum policy reform is an essential companion piece that will ensure that the networks that get built with or without public…
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By Denis Carmel
ROBERT GHIZ, THE Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) president and CEO gave a strong speech at the virtual Telecom Summit on Wednesday focusing on the importance of the wireless industry and its contribution to Canadian economy and the role Canadian carriers continue to play in the pandemic.
“We are among world leaders in 4G network performance,” he said. “Opensignal’s benchmarking report earlier this year found that Canadians not only enjoy the fastest download speeds in North America, but the fastest in the world.”
Also, “a study commissioned by the U.S. industry association CTIA, looked at how the U.S….
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MONTREAL — Bell Media today announced it has made a minority investment in Grandé Studios, a Montreal-based company which provides production facilities, camera and lighting equipment rentals in Montreal and Toronto, as well as technical services to the local and international TV and film production industry.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed in Bell Media’s press release.
Grandé Studios’ facilities (pictured above) have already been home to several Bell Media original productions, including Transplant, La semaine des 4 Julie and the Crave Original film The Song of Names. In addition, several Hollywood blockbuster movie productions have made use of…
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MONTREAL — Due to the ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic, Telefilm Canada today announced it has suspended its physical presence at all international festivals and markets, including the Canada Pavilion, for the remainder of its fiscal year ending March 31, 2021.
Instead, Telefilm says it will ensure a robust presence for Canadian productions and talent at the industry’s virtual events and will coordinate a digital promotion campaign. Details are still to be announced.
In addition, Telefilm employees will continue to work remotely and physical offices across Canada will remain closed until spring 2021.
For Telefilm’s latest Covid-19 updates and FAQs regarding its…
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TORONTO — While applauding the federal government’s decision to increase funding available through its Universal Broadband Fund to $1.75 billion, independent service provider Distributel today said now it’s time for the CRTC to enforce its 2019 wholesale rate decision to create certainty for independents and stimulate investment and innovation (something fellow independent TekSavvy is also advocating).
Enforcement of the 2019 decision will not only establish rate certainty, it will provide independents with a retroactive overpayment refund which Distributel says it “will use predominantly to accelerate efforts to expand rural broadband and invest in other innovative initiatives that…
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