OTTAWA – BroadPoint International Telecom scooped up six of the ten spectrum licences in Industry Canada’s recent auction of residual spectrum licences in the 2300 MHz and 3500 MHz Bands.
The Richmond Hill, ON-based company submitted the highest bids for spectrum licences covering approximately 167,000 people in various locations in Quebec and in Thomspon, MB.
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association told Cartt.ca in an email that the spectrum is primarily for fixed wireless, such as Wireless Communications Services (WCS) and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA).
According to the Industry Canada website, WCS licensees in the 2300 MHz band may deploy…
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EVEN WITH CHANNEL Zero’s encouraging purchase of two over-the-air TV stations from Canwest Global this week, we are now left with six small market TV stations whose owners have set August 31st as the final day they intend to have the transmitters turned on.
In case you missed it – and you might have, given the timing of the news – Shaw Communications told CTV late Tuesday that, essentially, it had lost its nerve and was backing down from its confrontation with CTV over local television. The western cableco, despite its now apparently false bravado claims of how…
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GATINEAU – Earlier this week, the CBC attempted to give the CRTC a little advice before the Regulator releases its public notice announcing the September hearing into an overhaul of the regulation of the TV business in Canada this coming Monday.
As reported by Cartt.ca, this past Monday the CBC offered up a proposed new distribution order which would govern new fee-for-carriage negotiations between broadcasters and cable and satellite companies (actually, the broadcasters are trying to “re-brand” the fee-for-carriage battle to one entitled value for signal, but we digress…)
Together, Shaw Communications, Telus, Rogers Communications, Cogeco and Bell…
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BY UNDERESTIMATING THE SPEED of tech rumours that go a little viral and overestimating the diligence of Canadian journalism, I lost a bet last week.
Last Thursday, I came across an unsubstantiated rumour on the web that said Telus would have the Apple iPhone in October of this year. I bet a friend it would take a couple of days at least before that rumour found its way into the mainstream media (MSM) as a “sources say” piece. I was wrong. It took less than a day.
Thanks to Google Alerts, I was linked to gadget news/blog site Electronista.com,…
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REGINA – Access Communications announced this morning it is purchasing cable systems in 184 communities in the province.
Currently branded Persona and owned by Bragg Communications (whose primary brand is EastLink) the systems serve about 16,000 households in communities such as Lumsden, Balgonie, Pilot Butte, Melfort, Humboldt, Moosomin, Shaunavon, and Maple Creek, among others.
“Access Communications is committed to growth in the province of Saskatchewan through a capital investment of $125 million into the communications infrastructure across the province,” said Access president Jim Deane.
“This investment will create additional employment opportunities and will enhance the communities our co-operative serves…
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THE DIGITAL BRITAIN REPORT, an ambitious new plan by the leadership of the U.K. aimed at leading that country into the digital age, has set the year 2015 as the deadline when it will shut off analog transmission of radio station signals.
According to the Daily Telegraph newspaper, the government there is hopeful the continued uptake of Digital Audio Broadcasting, the standard of choice across the Pond, will allow them to make the switch, freeing up additional OTA spectrum for other uses and multiplying opportunity for radio broadcasters. Right now, digital listening already accounts for just over 20%…
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IT MAY NOT BE UNTIL 2010 when the CRTC holds licence renewal proceedings for the big Canadian TV companies, but the new chief executive of Canada’s national producers association has been working hard on that file for weeks already.
“We believe that the corporate group licence renewal hearings that are coming up in 2010 are probably the most important regulatory event of our generation and will have wide-ranging impact for the next 25 or 30 years,” said Norm Bolen, president and CEO of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), in a recent interview with Cartt.ca. “It’s very…
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MONTREAL – The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has received formal recognition as a certified bargaining agent representing workers in the motion picture and television industry in Quebec.
Quebec’s National Assembly passed Bill 32 last Friday, which amended the province’s law on the Status of the Artist.
By clarifying the respective jurisdictions of the IATSE and the Alliance Quebecoise des Techniciens de l’image et du son (AQTIS), the law will allow for “peace in Quebec’s film and television industry, which will send a message of stability to producers”, IATSE said in a statement.
The IATSE is an international union representing…
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OTTAWA – After dominating the three months worth of hearings earlier this Spring, the House of Commons committee on Canadian Heritage left out any recommendation on the controversial issue of fee for carriage in its report on the state of local television released Friday.
The committee heard testimony from 45 different groups in March, April and May about the issues and challenges facing Canada’s TV industry, from the importance of local television, to the fragmentation of TV audiences, through to declining advertising revenues.
Made up of MPs from all of the federal parties, the standing committee’s report made 18…
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MARKHAM, ON – Telecom veterans John Piercy and Ian Collins are joining Atria Networks as CEO and president, respectively.
Piercy joins Atria from Mountain Cable in Hamilton, ON, where he has been president for the past five years. He brings 26 years of telecom industry experience to the position, through stints at BCE Capital, Onsite Access Canada, Leitch Technologies and AT&T Canada.
Collins was previously the acting president at Cogeco Data Services (formerly Toronto Hydro Telecom Inc.). He has also worked at Hamilton Hydro, its FiberWired telecom services division, and Ontario Hydro.
Piercy and Collins will start July 6, replacing…
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