TORONTO – Rogers Communications is proposing to make our smart world a whole lot smarter by powering more than one million machine-to-machine connections and bringing a cloud-based hosted data analytics offering to market this year. The company plans to grow its traditional M2M business to include big data and analytics as well as professional and managed services, and expects the market revenue for the overall M2M ecosystem in Canada will reach $1 billion in the next three years.
At a roundtable discussion today at the new Toronto Rogers Wireless Innovation Centre (pictured), Nadir Mohamed, Rogers…
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AFTER SIX YEARS, SATELLITE radio produced its first-ever profit in Canada when earlier this month SiriusXM Canada reported it was $3.3 million in the black for the first quarter of fiscal 2013.
For executive chairman John Bitove, that Q1 result is vindication after plugging away just as XM Canada to begin with – in competition with Sirius Canada – and then finally merging with it in 2011 two years after the American satellite radio companies combined themselves. Satellite radio faced numerous launch obstacles, chiefly convincing people to want to pay for radio in the first place,…
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WIND MOBILE WANTS THE federal government to throw whatever book it can at Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications over their recent spectrum deal.
Last week – as part of a multi-faceted $700 million transaction – Rogers Communications paid $50 million to Shaw Communications for an option which assures Rogers will purchase Shaw’s AWS spectrum when it is allowed to come on the open market in late 2014.
As a new entrant to the wireless game, Shaw paid $190 million for spectrum in the 2008 auction that was set aside just for wireless newcomers. Wind Mobile, Videotron, Shaw,…
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AMONG CANADIAN TELEVISION executives, no one is more active on Twitter than Kirstine Stewart. Some feel Twitter is an waste of time and it sure can be if you let it, but for Stewart, EVP of English Services at the CBC and a smart user of the social network, Twitter is a good way for @KStewartCBC to listen to Canadians, get her message out – and even make her personal opinions known, about more than just the CBC.
Of course, her tweets are often back-slapping congratulations for this or that CBC program doing well in the ratings (there have…
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WINNIPEG – Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) is calling for public support in its bid to renew its licence with the CRTC. APTN is requesting a 15 cent increase wholesale fee for the next term in order to “sustain a strong and talented Aboriginal production industry and grow opportunities to better serve the needs of Aboriginal communities through a comprehensive strategic plan,” it said in a statement.
Since 2005, APTN has received a nominal fee of 25 cents per Canadian subscriber through monthly subscription fees. This says APTN has fueled a nationwide network of Aboriginal…
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OTTAWA – It’s common these days to see Internet speeds still advertised with “up to” speeds that rarely ever approach the average speeds that subscribers will actually experience in practice. The problem is that most consumers believe they are getting, at least some of the time, the advertised speeds says the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) because they are not being properly informed. It’s calling on the Competition Bureau and CRTC to play a more active role in monitoring the compliance of ISP speed and performance claims in advertising and to develop rules for broadband labelling.
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TORONTO – The Banff World Media Festival will honour actor and comedian Will Arnett with the Canadian Award of Distinction at this year’s Festival, being held from June 9-12th at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Canada.
Arnett will accept the honour at the annual Rockie Awards Gala, a star-studded event that celebrates some of the biggest names in the film and television industry. The Award of Distinction is presented to a Canadian whose body of work exemplifies outstanding achievement in the entertainment industry. Past recipients include Paul Haggis, Howie Mandel, Erick McCormack and…
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OTTAWA – Five consumer and public advocacy groups have demanded that Minister of Industry Christian Paradis take action to prohibit Rogers Communications from acquiring spectrum from Shaw Communications, calling the deal “contrary to the original AWS auction rules of the set-aside” and contrary to “your Ministry’s clear policy to preserve that spectrum for new wireless entrants.”
The groups signing the January 21 letter were the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC), OpenMedia.ca, the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and the Council of Senior Citizens Organizations of British Columbia (COSCO).
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OTTAWA – Canada’s ICT sector GDP increased 0.7% in the third quarter of 2012, the second consecutive increase after having remained essentially flat between the third quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. This according to Industry Canada’s recently released the Quarterly Monitor of the Canadian ICT Sector for the Third Quarter of 2012. The Quarterly Monitor reports on growth rates in output (GDP), manufacturing shipments, employment and exports for the Canadian ICT sector and its main industries, using the most up-to-date indicators available.
Third quarter highlights of 2012:
• Manufacturing industries…
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CAIRO AND TORONTO – Wind Mobile has agreed to a deal to become fully foreign-owned by Egyptian-based telcom giant Orascom Telecom Holding, with its CEO and founder Anthony Lacavera to resign once the deal is approved by Industry Canada.
The agreement follows recent changes by Industry Canada that frees up telecom companies with less than 10% market share to have no restrictions on foreign investment. As part of the deal Lacavera will transfer all his shares in the wireless upstart to VimpelCom subsidiary Orascom, which already owns 65.1% of the carrier and was an…
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