TORONTO – Service providers should be working together, collaboratively, to build a truly integrated ecosystem for delivering next-generation, personalized customer services, said Telus CTO Ibrahim Gedeon during his Monday afternoon keynote at the Canadian Telecom Summit.
Admitting that no single service provider will ever own its clients’ end-to-end business, he added: “Not every service is 100% Telus, or CIBC, or Air Canada, or Rogers or Bell.”
He pointed out Telus was able to work with Bell and Rogers in the past on the OneAPI initiative that created a single API for the mobile industry in Canada. “How many people know that…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Wholesale wireless service continues to be a prickly topic between wireless incumbents and new entrants, and quickly became a dominant theme Tuesday morning during the Canadian Telecom Summit’s annual regulatory blockbuster panel, moderated again this year by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien.
Bell, Rogers and Telus remained steadfast in their collective belief that increased regulation on wholesale wireless services will result in decreased network investments. Ken Engelhart, SVP regulatory for Rogers Communications, got that ball rolling early in the 90 minute panel, raising the matter in his opening “trite observations”.
“Wholesale regulation inevitably leads to a reduction in investment,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – There are some conference organizers from whom you never hear a word, discouraging or otherwise. Not so for Michael Sone and Mark Goldberg, the owners and organizers of the Canadian Telecom Summit, now in its 13th year.
They generally set the overall tone for the conference with a punchy opening speech, delivered in tag-team format and this year was no different when they opened the gathering Monday morning.
“While wireless services flourish with new gadgets and a never-ending stream of new apps and services raising connectivity and instantaneous communication to new heights, the promise of new competition in mobile…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The volume of data being generated by the Internet of things is “mind boggling” and “transforms literally everything”, said Alec Saunders, vice-president of Blackberry’s QNX Cloud Business division, speaking during a Canadian Telecom Summit panel titled “Cloud, Big Data and the Transformative Power of the Network” on Monday.
“We’re seeing usage of data in all kinds of analytics scenarios that people didn’t really think about when they were collecting the data,” Saunders said, adding the challenge for companies is being able to use and share that data in meaningful ways.
He gave the example of an industrial lighting manufacturer…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATAAlliance) is calling on Canadian policy makers to adopt a U.K. best practices model to support the development of ‘smart cities’ here at home.
The high-tech association launched a campaign Friday on the heels of a new U.K. report that values the smart cities industry at more than $400 billion globally by 2020. A smart city uses intelligent technology to enhance quality of life in urban environments, for example, by minimizing waste, measuring water usage and managing transport routes.
CATAAlliance CEO John Reid and i-Canada chair Bill Hutchison took to YouTube to generate support for…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Content providers, regulators, policy makers, and industry experts are invited to attend this year’s IIC Canada 2014 Conference in Ottawa on October 21 – 22, 2014.
The Canadian communications industries are being re-shaped by major changes in technology, industry structure, government and regulatory policy. Now that the federal government has released its long-awaited Digital Strategy and the CRTC's Let's Talk TV proceeding is well underway, the question is: what comes next?
The conference will bring together leading communications sector players to explore what the future will look like for Canadian consumers and providers of communications services and…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The number of people who now spend their hard-earned cash to pay for time – and the number of businesses which have sprung up to serve them – highlights how the entire telecom industry must shift and show Canadians that it, too, not only respects their precious time, but can give some of it back.
In his first ever speech to the Canadian Telecom Summit, Rogers Communications CEO Guy Laurence departed from the standard executive speech at these sorts of functions (often just a bit of information smothered by a lengthy commercial for the brand). That was not…
Continue Reading
QUISPAMSIS, NB – From a technician who skipped his own dinner party on the Friday night of a long weekend to help a new digital customer, to a cable company that sourced a used TV for an elderly customer who couldn’t afford to repair her old one, Canada’s smaller television and communications providers often have a unique way of serving – and giving back, to their customers and communities.
The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA), which represents more than 100 local providers across Canada, is promoting customer service stories like those to help demonstrate the unique connection that these…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – It’s not too late to register for the 2014 Canadian Telecom Summit which will kick off Monday at the Toronto Congress Centre in Toronto.
Now in its 13th year, the event has grown to become Canada's most important annual telecommunications and IT event, attracting hundreds of attendees from around the world.
In addition to more than a dozen keynote addresses and some 50 panelists, the confab will include the popular Regulatory Blockbuster, moderated by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien, plus keynotes from industry heavyweights such as Rogers’ president and CEO Guy Laurence, Shaw EVP and COO Jay Mehr,…
Continue Reading
BANFF – One in four Canadians is a 4 screen consumer; and Canada per capita is the number one user of Facebook. Close to 40% of us readily watch TV online and Millennial YouTube and iTunes stars are popping up everywhere, exploding the old definition of TV.
So these are unsettling times for conventional Banff World Media Fest summer camp types that remember the good old days of The Banff Park Lodge (and tube-TVs…)
But that needn't be the case.
Jennifer Dettman, executive director, studio and unscripted content for the CBC, tells us that the Mother Corp is on the cusp of great…
Continue Reading
