TORONTO – John Maduri finds the claims being made by Canada’s wireless companies that they need access to 700 MHz wireless spectrum in order to deliver wireless broadband to rural Canadians to be nothing short of a “myth.”
Maduri runs a company, Xplornet, which has long made its living serving many thousands of customers who live and work nowhere near a high-rise. With a combination of fixed wireless and satellite service – and hundreds of millions of dollars invested – Xplornet is serving rural folks just fine, thanks, Maduri said in an interview with Cartt.ca. It’s…
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TORONTO – Mobilicity went to the drawing board to illustrate its opinion on spectrum set-asides in the pending 700 MHz spectrum auction.
Inspired by Charles Dickens' classic novel Oliver Twist, the company issued a political cartoon (see below) satirizing Canada's incumbent carriers' “hoarding of spectrum" and efforts seeking to prevent new entrants' growth.
"For Mobilicity, acquiring more spectrum in the upcoming Federal Government auction is a must-have – not a nice-to-have," said president and COO Stewart Lyons, in Wednesday’s statement. "Our current 3G technology uses our entire 10MHz of spectrum and we need more to expand and introduce new technologies, such as LTE."
Lyons also claimed that…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications’ announcement on Friday of NextBox 2.0 is not “the next big thing,” but just the next new fork in an ever-fragmenting road.
While the telcos roll out their IPTV offerings running Microsoft Mediaroom’s whole home PVR functionality and slick, flexible on-screen guides and web applications, Rogers NextBox 2.0 (Cisco’s much-touted Videoscape) is an utterly necessary upgrade to the cable experience, bringing it to a more even footing with the growing competition of Bell’s Fibe TV in Toronto.
While about 300,000 of Rogers existing digital cable boxes will be able to handle the new…
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TORONTO – Rogers has added a number of independent films to its Rogers On Demand and Rogers Anyplace TV movie lineup after finalizing a deal with Tribeca Film.
Beginning immediately, Tribeca Film will release Edward Burns' Newlyweds, as well as Black Butterflies, Conception, and Neon Flesh. The films are available for rent on Rogers On Demand channel 100 starting at $5.99 and on-line at Rogers Anyplace TV starting at $4.99. Additional titles will be added in the coming months.
"We're thrilled to be working with Tribeca to expand our on-demand library and give our customers access to quality films that don't…
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MISSISSAUGA – The Shopping Channel celebrated its 25th birthday with the largest ‘Today’s Showstopper’ unit sales record in the company’s history.
On February 25, the Rogers-owned multi-channel retailer offered Canadians a special Diamonelle sterling silver necklace for $25, and sold 25,000 units plus an additional 9,000 units online. That beat the channel’s previous sales record for ‘Today’s Showstopper’ unit sales set January 23, 2010 with more than 23,000 units of Elizabeth Grant skincare sold.
“We wanted to share our 25th birthday with Canadians by delivering a special item at a fantastic price-point. The overwhelming response we received reinforces the outstanding relationship with…
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DENVER – In May, Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind, will become just the third Canadian inducted into the Cable Center’s prestigious Cable Hall of Fame. (Ted Rogers and JR Shaw are the other two.)
Lind, long recognized as Ted Rogers’ right-hand-man, is a 42-year veteran of the Canadian cable, broadcasting and telecommunications company. When he first came on board, Rogers owned just two small radio stations and about 15,000 cable subscribers.
Lind (pictured) was Ted’s point man as the company gobbled up other Canadian cable companies and was legendary, Stateside, as Rogers became a major cable player there as well in…
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ST. JOHN’S – Rogers Communications said Monday that its LTE network is now live in St. John's, making the company the first to switch on its next-gen network in Newfoundland.
"We are proud to be the first carrier to bring our LTE network to St. John's," said John Boynton, Rogers executive vice president and chief marketing officer, in a press release. LTE brings data speeds over wireless similar to some broadband connections, over LTE enabled smartphones or Internet sticks.
www.rogers.com/lte
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TORONTO – Rogers customers in Ontario may now watch live and recorded TV programs from any room in their homes thanks to the company’s newest offer dubbed NextBox 2.0.
Unveiled Friday morning, the system uses the Cisco Videoscape TV architecture to provide whole home PVR services, and allow tablet users to stream over 20 channels of live TV to their tablets using their Wi-Fi connection. It also includes a sleeker, more intuitive interactive program guide and a new on-demand portal.
"Canadians are increasingly looking for seamless, easy-to-use and flexible ways to fit all their favourite entertainment into their busy schedules -…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile made a final appeal to Industry Canada and the federal government to set aside a portion of the 700 MHz spectrum for exclusive bidding by new wireless entrants. The rules for the pending auction are expected to be announced shortly.
In a statement on Friday, CEO Anthony Lacavera said that the idea of spectrum caps, which was proposed by Telus, will not only shut investors out of the pending spectrum auction, buts it puts the ‘Big Three’ incumbents interests ahead of consumer interests.
“If Minister Paradis makes a decision to announce ‘caps’ over ‘set aside’…
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TORONTO – Citytv has launched an app for tablets around its Canada’s Got Talent series in an effort to help build buzz around the show prior to its March 4 debut.
Available now at BlackBerry App World, the Apple App Store and iTunes, the free Canada’s Got Talent app promises show content such as photo galleries, a live chat during every episode, and an interactive ‘At-Home Judge’ component where users may pull up a seat at the judges’ desk. Users can also track the success of each performance in real time as Canadians across the country chime in with their own…
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