OTTAWA – Telus chairman Brian A. Canfield has been named this year’s recipient of the Neotelis Canadian Telecom Career Service Award.
Awarded by Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame, the career service awards were initiated in 2006 to acknowledge the exemplary work, accomplishments and leadership of those Canadians who have made tangible contributions to the betterment of the domestic and international telecom industry for the better part of their careers.
Canfield joined BC Tel in 1956 and, in the early part of his career, held key positions in network services, engineering, operator services, sales and operations before being named president and CEO…
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KELOWNA – The 7th annual Canadian CommTech Show and Seminars is returning to the Coast Capri Hotel in Kelowna, BC on May 16 – 17, 2012.
Geared towards the cable, telecommunications and wireless industries, approximately 70 exhibitors from Canada and the U.S are expected to attend to display their lines and profile their services. New at the 2012 show are unlimited free passes for to the trade show floor on Wednesday afternoon from 1 to 4 pm – unopposed time from seminars.
Exhibitor table registration, passport program guide advertising opportunities, and sponsorship packages are available now, and outdoor exhibition space is…
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WOODSTOCK, NB – Xplornet Communications has joined a dozen other Internet service providers in calling on Industry Minister Christian Paradis to allow rural providers to bid for rural broadband spectrum at the next auction.
The group has signed an open letter addressed to the Minister, available here, asking the auction rules to “set aside rural areas from urban areas and deal with them separately”. Broadband providers outside of cities use wireless signals to deliver broadband to rural and remote locations. Under current auction rules, spectrum is sold in large geographic blocks covering both urban and rural areas, making it…
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OTTAWA – The Government’s decision to reintroduce its Copyright Modernization Act back in the House of Commons was been met with a resounding thumbs-up from almost all industry stakeholders.
Bill C-11 seeks to bring Canada’s antiquated copyrights law in line with current international standards by implementing provisions of the World Intellectual Property Protection Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. Industry Minister Christian Paradis and Heritage Minister James Moore said in a joint announcement that the legislation will ensure that Canada’s copyright laws are modern and flexible, while balancing the needs of creators and users.
"Canadians will…
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TORONTO – The first annual Canadian ISP Summit is coming to Toronto from November 14 – 16, presented by the Canadian Network Operator’s Consortium (CNOC) and the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP).
Designed for ISPs large and small across the country – and open to participants in the Canadian ISP industry – this conference will allow attendees to address the challenges and opportunities of the current business environment. The event will also be co-located with the Internet Society’s (ISOC) ION Conference, which will take place on Monday afternoon.
Keynote speeches will be made by representatives from the CRTC, Industry Canada, Telus…
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OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada said today it will decide whether or not the CRTC has the jurisdiction to institute the fee-for-carriage (or value for signal) regime it okayed in 2010.
When the CRTC made its policy announcement in March of that year, it referred the jurisdictional question to the Federal Court (pre-empting the carriers, who would have done the same thing). Then in March 2011, the Federal Court issued a 2-1 decision saying the CRTC did, in fact, have the right to okay a new value-for-signal policy where off-air TV broadcasters would have the right…
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TORONTO – Bell Media president Kevin Crull laid a verbal smackdown on the CRTC Monday in Toronto.
Speaking to a Broadcast Executives Society luncheon, Crull railed against last week’s CRTC vertical integration policy decision, which Bell is among just a few companies who came out against the Commission’s determination, saying the new policy will cause significant harm to the Canadian industry.
After pointing out the TV business suffers with “a failed financial model for delivering conventional television,” Crull also pointed out how his company (owners of conventional broadcast brands CTV and CTV Two along with specialty channels like TSN, Discovery,…
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CHANGE AT THE VERY top of the CRTC may be only the tip of the iceberg.
It’s been an open secret-slash-assumption for a while that the Conservative government was not keen on extending Konrad von Finckenstein’s stay as CRTC chairman. While the chair had made it known in the summer he would like to stay on for a few more years at least (a shorter, three year term was discussed, according to people with knowledge of the situation), Federal Cabinet has decided a new person will take the reins come January 25, when von Finckenstein’s mandate ends.
On Tuesday, he sent…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications is hoping that its wireless customers will help with its lobbying efforts to prevent Industry Canada from giving special treatment to new entrants during next year’s auction of the 700 Mhz wireless spectrum. But at least one of those new entrants has taken issue with the tactic, calling it “a thinly veiled attempt at manipulating government regulators and public perception”.
Rogers, the country’s largest mobile operator, posted a sample letter on its website asking customers interested in its new LTE service to email it to their elected officials to demand a “fair and open auction for…
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WHILE SAYING HIS company has not yet decided on a course of action, Bell Canada’s regulatory chief says thanks to the CRTC’s new vertical integration policy, he wants to start over when it comes to our broadcasting laws and its regulation.
(Explained here, the new policy: prohibits exclusives on linear TV content when it comes to mobile and online platforms; bans tied selling of specialty services ensuring BDUs can buy them from programmers one at a time; calls for consumers to be able to buy more specialties one at a time in a pick-and-pay format; outlines a specific code…
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