MONTREAL – It was almost a game of regulatory Call Of Duty for Bell Canada on Friday as company executives brandished figurative pistols to whack as many of its enemies claims as it could while defending its position on its deal to buy Astral Media for $3.38 billion.
While the company recommitted itself to providing everything it promised earlier in the week, and reiterated how the combined company’s level of ownership and audience share would not “come anywhere close to any reasonable or customary assessment of dominance in any developed country,” said…
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OTTAWA – Innovation, investment and infrastructure will be the key themes at the 11th Annual International Institute of Communications (IIC) 2012 Canada Conference at the Ottawa Convention Centre, October 29-30.
The conference will explore the questions around where network pressure will emerge, what engineering or other 'physics' solutions exist to stay ahead of that demand curve, where the financing will come from to maintain infrastructure at a necessary level to meet those pressures, and what the corollary impact will be on the ability of government to achieve policy goals.
Pre-registration is mandatory and space is limited. Registrations will be…
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MONTREAL – It's not flying cars and holographic displays (at least not yet), but Rogers Communications CEO Nadir Mohamed set a more attainable, near-term vision for a technological future in a speech to the Canadian Club in Montreal on Monday. It's a vision in which mobile service providers like Rogers play a key role.
Mohamed (pictured below) laid out three technological innovations during a 20-minute speech, in which he noted how odd it was that he was standing in front of a large Bell logo (Bell is the principal sponsor of the Canadian Club's CEO speech program):
1. Digital wallets
"There is…
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OTTAWA – The Competition Bureau announced Friday it’s launching a $31 million lawsuit against Bell Canada, Rogers Communications and Telus Corporation and the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA). The Bureau alleges that the telcos promoted premium texting services while giving the impression that they were free. It’s also demanding that they cease the misleading advertising and provide full refunds to customers.
The lawsuit, which seeks penalties of $10 million from each telco, and $1 million from the CWTA, follows a five-month investigation. It concluded that Bell, Rogers and Telus, in conjunction with the CWTA, “facilitated the sale to their own…
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OAKVILLE, ON, – Sheridan College and Ubisoft are partnering in joint research projects that will foster development of cutting-edge virtual production and performance capture techniques in Ontario and worldwide.
"Ubisoft is one of the global industry leaders in development and application of these processes," said Jeff Zabudsky, President of Sheridan College. "Given our academic expertise in digital media storytelling, this was seen by both organizations as a unique opportunity to collaborate and establish a global centre of excellence for research, curriculum and training in interactive storytelling using virtual production practices."
Ubisoft says the partnership, which coincides with Ubisoft…
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VANCOUVER – Rogers and Wavefront, a non-profit business incubator, have announced that the Rogers Wireless Innovation Centre in Vancouver is now open to business customers and developers. Located within Wavefront's national centre of excellence for wireless commercialization, the centre’s mission is to accelerate the development of machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions by helping technology innovators develop products and bring them to market faster.
"Rogers is passionate about fostering growth in M2M and strengthening the wireless developer ecosystem in Canada through simplifying the development and go-to-market journey," said Mansell Nelson, Vice-President, Advanced Business Solutions, Rogers Communications in a release.
"We are thrilled to…
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WINNIPEG – Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. and its Board of Directors have announced a wide-ranging strategic review of its Allstream business division, a strong sign that it is positioning itself for a sale.
The company indicated in a news release Thursday that legislative changes by Ottawa that allow increased foreign investment in smaller telecommunications companies are a “positive development” that will “strengthen the Canadian economy.” As a result the company says it will “consider a full range of alternatives that could be undertaken to further enhance Allstream's growing competitiveness, which in turn could improve the long-term position of the company's…
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MONTREAL – Telus is another in the line of companies who want the purchase of Astral Media by Bell Canada killed.
But, if it is approved, the industry needs better rules to govern the behaviour of it and other vertically integrated companies (but especially Bell…), Telus told the CRTC Thursday morning in Montreal.
The best example of Bell’s intransigence, said Telus executives, is its dealings on multiplatform content. “It has been mentioned by many parties in this proceeding that Olympic coverage on mobile was only available to Bell Mobility subscribers,” said Telus director of broadcast regulation and corporate affairs, Ann Mainville-Neeson….
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MONTREAL – Sometimes it’s hard to put a finger on the reasons why we decide to pull something out of the tens of thousands of words spoken at CRTC hearings and turn it into a story.
Other times, such as Cogeco Cable CEO Louis Audet’s focused, furious appearance Wednesday, it’s easy to figure out why we cover some submissions instead of others…
We know everyone works hard on their presentations and the job they all do is commendable. However, as I often tell people, we can’t write about everyone. That said, there are frequent portions in every CRTC hearing that stick…
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MONTREAL – We have a real soft spot in our hearts for those regular citizens, the ones with no industry background, with nothing to gain financially, who are concerned enough about a broadcasting or telecom, issue before the CRTC that they choose to appear publicly to make their case officially.
A few years ago, it was Ottawa’s Marjorie Lemieux at the fee-for-carriage kerfuffle. Thursday in Montreal it was Rahul Majumdar, just a regular Montrealer who doesn’t want to see TSN Radio 690 (formerly 990) turn into RDS Radio. The Montreal sports fan bears the French sports…
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