TORONTO – Many Canadian businesses still aren’t sure how to leverage the Internet of Things despite the technology's advantages, says a Rogers Communications official.
Eric Simmons, the company’s general manager of IoT and wireless made the comment during an interview Wednesday at this year's annual Canadian Wireless Trade Show in Toronto, where he spoke about IoT and how new end-to-end solutions announced recently by the carrier will help make it "available to the masses."
The three are:
Farm and Food Monitoring, which allows farmers to remotely check key status of produce, livestock, and equipment by automating…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Adding packet-switched voice calling to LTE networks (VoLTE) is in some ways the holy grail of true 4G wireless.
By enabling an all-IP based communications system, not only will it improve the quality of voice calls compared to legacy networks, VoLTE will ultimately also make network stacks simpler.
But on Wednesday a consultant warned Canadian carriers about to implement VoLTE they will need to work closely with older 2G and 3G networks – which will have to handle voice calls when users drift out of LTE coverage – to get the benefits of the new technology.
“The message here is…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Just over five million (5.1 million) Canadians participated in fantasy sports online or via a mobile device at some point in the past (about 20% of the online population), according to Solution Research Group’s most recent Sports Canada Quarterly report which tracks sports fans, sponsors and emerging consumer behavior in the sports space.
Top sports for fantasy sports participants in the past year were (in order of popularity): NHL Hockey, NFL Football, Major League Baseball, MLS Soccer, NBA Basketball and CFL Football, says the SRG press release.
On a top-of-mind basis, the top sites/apps that came to…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus must disclose their interim wholesale wireless rates within the next week after the CRTC found in favour of a disclosure of information request from Vaxination Informatique.
Vaxination filed a request for disclosure of all the confidential information in the wholesale wireless roaming interim tariffs issued on June 4, 2015 by the national wireless carriers, part of the Commission’s decision on wholesale mobile wireless services issued last May.
In a letter to the big three wireless carriers dated October 27, the CRTC said that it rejected submissions opposing the request, saying that the disclosure is…
Continue Reading
PEOPLE ARE ALREADY CALLING Justin Trudeau our first “selfie” Prime Minister. Images of him on the campaign trail – and the day after the election – mugging with various Canadians who have one arm outstretched and the other around our PM-to-be number in the hundreds of thousands. He’ll apparently even click it for you, if you like.
Of course, those snapshots are then uploaded to the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other sharing platform to display to followers around the country and the world. Just Google “Justin Trudeau selfie”.
Invariably, those images ride…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Late Thursday, Bell Canada applied to the Federal Court of Appeal for leave to appeal the CRTC’s recently announced Wholesale Code of conduct which it established for the TV industry as part of its Let’s Talk TV policy review process.
The Commission released the Code September 24th.
The CRTC has overstepped its jurisdiction with this Code, says the Bell application to the court. “The purpose of the Wholesale Code is to govern the commercial relationships between Programming and Distribution Undertakings. In doing so, the Wholesale Code conflicts with the Copyright Act and exceeds the CRTC’s…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw Communications saw fourth quarter profits jump by nearly 44% thanks in part to the sales of wireless spectrum to Rogers earlier this year.
For the three month period ended August 31, 2015, Shaw said that net income was $276 million, while consolidated revenues grew 6.3% to $1.34 billion year-over-year, primarily attributable to the operations of ViaWest, organic customer growth in Business Network Services as well as Consumer division rate increases introduced earlier this year.
Total operating income before restructuring costs and amortization for the quarter of $573 million improved 9.1% primarily due to the acquisition of ViaWest and…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers Communications credited the Toronto Blue Jays’ winning ways for helping to drive up third quarter profits by 40%.
Rogers said Thursday that operating revenue for the period ended September 30, 2015 totalled $3.38 billion, up 4% from $3.25 billion year-over-year, while net income was $464 million, up from $332 million. On an adjusted basis, net income rose 17% from $405 million in the third quarter of 2014 to $472 million.
Consolidated revenue increased 4% this quarter, reflecting revenue growth of 5% in Wireless, 1% in Cable, and 8% in Media. Wireless revenue increased on greater smartphone sales and…
Continue Reading
NEW ORLEANS – The cable industry's long-awaited transition to all-IP video world is finally becoming a solid reality after years of brave talk.
At the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo show in New Orleans last week, Comcast CTO and EVP Tony Werner said North America's largest MSO has firmly put its stake in the IP video future. Speaking in the show's opening general session, Werner boasted Comcast will have all of its linear and VOD services available over IP by the end of the next March.
In fact, Werner revealed that 95% of Comcast's vast U.S. cable footprint already has all of its…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – CBC/Radio-Canada has been awarded the Canadian broadcast rights for the the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and the 2024 Olympic Games, making it the official broadcaster for the next five Olympic Games including Rio 2016, Pyeongchang 2018, and Tokyo 2020.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. As lead broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada said it will be working once again with its primary Olympic broadcast partner Bell Media along with Rogers Media.
CBC/Radio-Canada will also be a broadcast partner, from 2016 until at least 2023, for the International Olympic Committee’s new global digital Olympic Channel. The public broadcaster will provide…
Continue Reading
