Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced Tuesday the appointment of Drew Olsen as vice chair and CEO of the Copyright Board of Canada for a five-year term, starting Aug. 26.
In this position, Olsen will lead the work of the Copyright Board as well as supervise and direct board staff. He succeeds Nathalie Théberge, who was recently appointed as the CRTC’s vice chair of broadcasting for a five-year term that began in April.
Olsen is currently associate director general of the audiovisual branch at Canadian Heritage. While at the department, he has held other leadership…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The combination of Cogeco’s Canadian and American operations is already yielding cost-saving results, the telecom’s executives said Friday, which includes an artificial intelligence chatbot that is managing some of the telecom’s customer service interactions.
“The results are above our expectations so far,” Frederic Perron, the telecom’s president and CEO, said of the chatbot called Charlie on the company’s fiscal third-quarter conference call. “In less than one month, Charlie has successfully handled tens of thousands of customer interactions, many of which did not require a transfer to a human.
“Charlie will continue to evolve and will be deployed in Canada…
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The Canada Media Fund (CMF) on Monday invited industry members and organizations to help shape its 2024-2027 Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) Strategy by sharing their insights at in-person forums or via virtual sessions during the month of July.
EDIA community members can attend in-person sessions in Toronto (July 17), Vancouver (July 24) or Montreal (July 30). The meetings can also be joined virtually on Zoom, according to information on the registration form here. Industry organizations are invited to attend virtual sessions on July 29 in English and on July 31 in…
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Bell announced Tuesday it has acquired technical services companies Stratejm and CloudKettle Inc., which it says strengthens its managed cybersecurity and Salesforce capabilities for enterprises.
“These acquisitions will advance Bell’s strategy to be the leader in supporting medium and large organizations’ digital transformations and automation through cloud services,” a Bell press release says. “Combined with Bell’s pure fibre and 5g networks, enterprises will benefit from an exceptional and seamless AI-powered end-to-end customer experience.”
Based in Mississauga, Ont., and servicing Canadian and international customers, Stratejm leverages AI through its end-to-end Security-as-a-Service solutions, real-time threat detection and response, and streamlining…
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The Canada Media Fund (CMF) last week announced a new chair and the appointment of a new director to its board.
Michael Schmalz has been elected as chair of the board, succeeding outgoing chair Alain Cousineau, who left the board of directors after an 11-year tenure.
Appointed as a CMF board director by the Department of Canadian Heritage in 2017, Schmalz resides in London, Ont., is fully bilingual, and brings more than 17 years of experience in the digital media industry, with a focus on gaming innovation.
René Guimond has been appointed…
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Frontier Networks Inc., a Toronto-based provider of broadband and network connectivity solutions, announced Wednesday it is now an authorized reseller of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet services in Canada and the United States.
Focusing on delivering robust connectivity solutions and ensuring 100 per cent uptime, Frontier Networks currently serves thousands of business customers across various sectors, including retail, franchise operations, finance, industrial and small to medium enterprises, the company says in a press release.
“Our entire customer experience is our most essential showcase item. We attract clients motivated by the personal care we put into every relationship. Having Starlink…
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By Ahmad Hathout
A new bill that would force the CRTC to “consult” with the provincial governments on matters affecting French-speaking markets is drawing concern from regulatory authorities both in its legal terminology and the precedent it could set for a tribunal freshly saddled with increased responsibilities.
The private member’s bill C-354, which passed second reading in the House and is in the committee stage, would amend the CRTC Act to add to section 12 a paragraph that would require it to “consult with the Government of Quebec or the governments of the other provinces, as the case…
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A day after Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) launched a consultation on a proposed new spectrum policy that would open up certain mobile spectrum bands for use by satellite service providers to expand wireless services in unserved areas of Canada, Montreal-based mobile satellite operator Terrestar Solutions is calling on the country’s regulators and industry stakeholders to support and collaborate on its rollout of a national direct-to-mobile satellite service network.
As part of its proposed new policy, ISED is considering issuing supplemental mobile coverage by satellite (SMCS) licences to both Canadian and foreign satellite operators seeking…
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A new survey from Abacus Data on Tuesday has found 26 per cent of Canadians have changed their wireless plans in the past 12 months, and an “overwhelming” 86 per cent of those who had switched “felt they were getting a better deal with their new plan compared to their previous one.”
Among the survey respondents who switched wireless plans over the past year, 47 per cent said they switched to a different service provider, while the other 53 per cent said they changed to a different plan offered by their current service provider, according to the…
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Canada’s telecommunications sector contributed $80.8 billion to the country’s GDP and supported nearly 782,000 jobs across industries in 2023, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report commissioned by the Canadian Telecommunications Association (CTA).
The report, titled Driving Canada’s productivity: The impact of the telecom sector and its role in improving productivity, found the Canadian telecom sector invested $11.4 billion in capital expenditures in 2023 to continue expanding, enhancing and strengthening the country’s wireless and broadband networks.
On average, Canadian telecom providers reinvested 17.9 per cent of service revenues in 2023, exceeding the…
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