Minister Bains wouldn’t say, except perhaps between the lines
OTTAWA – It’s been nearly seven months since Bell Canada announced an agreement to buy Manitoba Telecom Services for $3.9 billion and still there has been no official word from the federal government on what it thinks of the deal.
The Competition Bureau is the primary regulator Bell has to satisfy with this purchase, but since the Bureau doesn’t do public hearings the way the CRTC does, we really don’t know what it is telling BCE officials about the deal, or the questions it has, but the six-plus…
Continue Reading
AFTER HIS SPEECH TO IIC Canada Wednesday afternoon in Ottawa, we sat down with CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais for a quick chat about his talk – and a few other things.
What follows is an edited transcript, lightly edited for clarity
Greg O’Brien: That was an aggressive speech, from my point of view. Was that a goodbye?
Jean-Pierre Blais: No, I don’t think it’s a goodbye. I said what we would be doing and I was taking stock of where we were at, four years later.
GOB: Are you looking to be renewed (as CRTC chairman)?
JPB: That’s not my…
Continue Reading
CRTC chair looks back, and ahead, and finds industry is lagging
OTTAWA – “We as a nation have to stop spinning our wheels on legacy issues and embrace where we’re heading,” CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said Wednesday in a strongly worded speech to delegates at the International Institute of Communications Canadian chapter conference.
“We have to get ahead of the curve. I repeat, we have to get ahead of the curve,” he said in a 30-minute address that was, more or less, a self-assessment on his nearly four-and-a-half years at the helm of the Commission. Blais said at this same conference four…
Continue Reading
PHOENIX – Legendary Canadian cable pioneer Israel “Sruki” Switzer died at his home in Phoenix late Wednesday afternoon of a heart attack. He was 87.
Switzer, while perhaps not as well known as some other pioneers, had his fingerprints all over the development of cable and telecom networks built across this country and around the world. Respected as a visionary among those whom he helped build these networks, as well as something of a maverick (and a speech he made in 2010 certainly confirms that), Switzer also earned some fame as the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers and Ericsson are partnering on a “Connected Water” initiative that will use Internet of Things technology to support the City of Ottawa’s water quality testing program.
The first of its kind in Canada, the pilot will use a combination of IoT, cloud and LTE mobile broadband technologies to gather real-time data that City staff can use to better predict, prevent and respond to potential issues related to water quality.
Sensors, capable of collecting data over a widespread area of the City's watershed system, will perform automated tests every 30 minutes. City employees will use this data to validate the…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers is rolling out a new tool designed to save their customers time by allowing them to use their phone to track exactly when a technician will arrive for an installation or service call.
The service, called Rogers EnRoute, sends a unique URL to the customer by email or text once an appointment has been booked. On the day of the appointment, a reminder notification is sent, along with an updated ETA. Once the technician is on the way, customers may receive real-time updates by checking a map to see the technician's exact whereabouts and estimated number of minutes…
Continue Reading
Hint: Check your pocket
TORONTO – When Doug Bingley, CEO of Central Ontario Broadcasting, went to a Best Buy recently in search of a clock radio he was shocked to find out there are almost no more radios for sale in the country’s largest electronics retailer.
He told delegates at Thursday’s Ontario Association of Broadcasters annual one day conference at the Toronto Airport Marriott that he found extensive displays of Bluetooth speakers and other devices which wirelessly link to the smartphones or tablets or PCs of Canadians – but only two stand-alone conventional radios – off on their own in a…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – With more than 350 delegates, a strong group of sponsors and vendors and 21 educational sessions, the 2016 Canadian ISP Summit was the biggest edition yet.
Focused on independent ISPs like Teksavvy, Distributel, Sogetel and Execulink, the annual gathering is a place to hear war stories, get the latest and greatest in tech developments, hear marketing successes and, of course, regulatory wins and losses.
2016 has featured a few wins for the independent ISPs on the wholesale wireline front, especially (even though that still isn’t over, yet).
The final session…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has ordered Rogers Communications to allow TekSavvy Solutions to provide Internet access services to its customers at a Toronto townhouse complex.
The Commission said Wednesday that Rogers must continue to provide TekSavvy with access to its existing and new retail end-users in the complex by way of aggregated wholesale high-speed access (HSA) service provisioned over Rogers’ fibre-to-the-premises access facilities, subject to the conditions set out in its decision. Furthermore, Rogers must provide other ISP competitors with access to their existing and new customers at that complex through the same service, and subject to the same conditions set…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Long-time Rogers radio personality Erin Davis said Wednesday that she is retiring from her popular morning show Erin and Darren in the Morning on Toronto’s 98.1 CHFI FM.
Davis (pictured) will return to host future specials and features on the station, but her last day on the morning show will be December 15. Details of a new co-host to join Darren B. Lamb will be announced in the coming weeks.
An Edmonton native, Davis got her start hosting an afternoon radio show on CIGL-FM while attending radio broadcasting at Loyalist College in Belleville, ON. She joined 98.1 CHFI in…
Continue Reading
