TORONTO – As his wireless company nears its launch in the new year, Public Mobile CEO Alek Kristajic was talking tough this week, addressing how the company plans to attack the Canadian marketplace while applauding the CRTC for standing firm on Globalive’s ownership shortcomings.
Speaking at the Scotia Capital 2010 Telecom and Tech Conference on Tuesday, Kristajic (a former Rogers Cable and Bell Canada executive) emphasized how he believes his company is going after a market that no one else has tended to yet: “the low end of the market that doesn’t have a cell phone,” he said.
When western markets…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Canadian Film and Television Production Association is urging Industry Minister Tony Clement to be “vigilant” and “not submit to the current pressures being exerted” in his review of Globalive Wireless.
In letter dated November 9, the CFTPA said that Minister Clement has its “strong support for holding firm to the current Canadian ownership and control requirements in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors”.
“We believe that the current ownership and control rules are a positive force in the Canadian economy”, reads the letter, which is signed by president and CEO Norm Bolen. “They are necessary to ensure that Canadians…
Continue Reading
DARTMOUTH, NS – Despite a slowdown in the advertising market, Newfoundland Capital Corporation (NewCap) reported growth in net income and EBITDA for its third quarter ended September 30, 2009.
Consolidated revenue of $25.4 million was 3% lower than last year, however, year-to-date consolidated revenue increased by 1%, to finish at $74.8 million.
Consolidated EBITDA in the quarter was $4.7 million, compared to a loss of $4.2 million last year, while net income was $6.2 million, up by $13.8 million over last year. The company said that unrealized losses in 2008 negatively impacted the prior year’s results while this third quarter’s $5.6…
Continue Reading
EXTON, Pa. – The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers has opened its call for nominations for the 2010 Young Canadian Engineering Professional of the Year Award, sponsored by Aurora Networks, and with publishing partner Cartt.ca.
SCTE developed the award and presented it for the first time at the inaugural SCTE Canadian Summit, which took place in February. The award is designed to annually recognize a young cable telecommunications engineering professional in Canada who is already making his or her mark on the industry.
The 2009 recipient was Rogers Cable’s Boris Culum.
The 2010 award will be presented during the 2010 SCTE…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – In a letter to incumbent telcos and others involved in the recent review of Globalive’s ownership by the CRTC, Industry Minister Tony Clement has asked for even more information as he examines the Commission’s call on the prospective new wireless entrant.
On October 29 the CRTC decided that since Egypt-based Orascom Telecom owned 65% of the equity in Globalive and virtually all of the debt, that the company was not Canadian controlled and could not operate as a telecom company in Canada. Our Telecom Act says our telcos, cablecos and broadcasters have to be majority Canadian-owned and…
Continue Reading
CLEARWATER, B.C. – Not all Canadian cable companies are against the broadcasters’ receiving a fee for their conventional television stations.
Tiny Raftview Communications, which serves the towns of Clearwater, B.C. (pop. 5,000, about 120 kms north of Kamloops) and Barriere (pop. 3,400, and about 60 kms farther north) with digital cable, high definition and high speed Internet has come out against its cable compatriots on the issue of fee for carriage.
“It is absolutely unreasonable that these broadcasters receive nothing for their service,” company president Paul Caissie writes in his submission to the CRTC for the December 7th hearing (2009-614)…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA and TORONTO – The CRTC’s decision which derailed wireless challenger Globalive’s plans to launch in Canada has also served to put a “regulatory gun to our head”, says chairman Anthony Lacavera.
In an interview Wednesday with Cartt.ca, the head of Globalive Wireless Management, the Canadian parent of Wind Mobile, said that the Commission has handicapped his Toronto-based company from sourcing Canadian financing.
“The CRTC said in the decision that they wanted us to deal with the debt, but they didn’t say how, and we have an issue with how ambiguous that is. But, they’ve also put us in the…
Continue Reading
DENVER – On its 40th anniversary, SCTE announced that the networks they have built across North America are becoming obsolete…Well, they didn’t put it that way.
Those in charge did, however, admit that the future of television, data, and voice transmission will occur via IP technology, not RF. For cable MSOs, there are many steps to complete before this transition can take place. So, while this year’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo delivered the latest and greatest technologies to the cable industry but it started with the acknowledgment that the RF world we live in, is in transition.
DOCSIS 3.0 has been at…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Videotron founder André Chagnon and one of the engineers who helped wire much of Canada with co-axial cable, Israel (Sruki) Switzer, are two of the five members of the 2009 class of inductees into the Canadian Telecom Hall of Fame and will be honoured Wednesday in Gatineau at the Canadian Museum of Civlization.
Chagnon will be inducted as a “business visionary and builder,” while Switzer (whose wife Phyllis was one of the founders of Citytv, and son Jay helmed CHUM Ltd. for many years) will go in as a cable technology pioneer and advocate. The other…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Bell TV has become the first television provider in the country to offer 100 high definition channels.
"Reaching 100 HD channels is a significant milestone that both enhances our lead in the industry and supports our strategic imperative to leverage our wireline momentum here at Bell”, Bell and BCE president and CEO George Cope said in an address to The Canadian Club in Montréal on Monday. “It’s another step on the journey to achieving our goal: For Bell to be recognized by customers as Canada’s leading communications company."
Bell TV announced earlier in the day that it will launch classic…
Continue Reading
