EXTON, PA -The cable and broadcast industry’s energy management challenges and new options for greater efficiency will be the topic of conversation when Comcast executive Mark Coblitz moderates a roundtable of cable and broadcast executives. The session takes place at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ SEMI (Smart Energy Management Initiative) Forum 2012 on March 15 in Philadelphia.
“Ensuring the availability and reliability of power is essential to the future of our industry,” said Derek DiGiacomo, senior director, Information Systems and Energy Management for SCTE. “Our panel will offer insights that will help attendees to better understand how operators, programmers…
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OTTAWA– The winning schools from across Canada who competed in a national recycling challenge for mobile phones and accessories where announced today. The 2011 Recycle My Cell Student Challenge, held in partnership with Waste Reduction Week in Canada, saw Canadian students from kindergarten to post-secondary collecting as many old wireless devices as possible, including cell phones, smartphones, wireless PDAs, pagers, accessories and cell phone batteries.
For 30 days beginning October 17, students from 134 schools across Canada participated in the second annual challenge and collected more than 6,000 wireless devices and close to 600 kilograms of wireless accessories and batteries….
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EDMONTON – Rogers Radio station 91.7 The Bounce today announced the homecoming of Russell James as its new program director later this month.
“We’re excited to have one of Canada’s brightest programmers back in our studio, bringing his progressive attitude, innovative ideas, and innate connection with the music industry back to the birthplace of his Edmonton radio career,” said Al Ford, operations manager, 91.7 The Bounce.
James has mixed music at parties for the likes of internationally-recognized stars including Prince and Justin Timberlake. He began his Edmonton radio career at 91.7 The Bounce in 2007, and helped propel the station to…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications says claims by Bell Canada and Telus that the two wireless competitors and collaborators aren’t sharing spectrum are false. In fact, Telus is using Bell’s spectrum in Toronto for Long Term Evolution (LTE) services, according to Ken Engelhart, senior vice-president of regulatory at Rogers.
Earlier this month, Telus began advertising a 75 Mbps LTE service in Toronto. According to Engelhart, it would be impossible for Telus to provide an LTE service with those kinds of speeds in the 10 MHz of bandwidth it holds in Toronto. It would need 20 MHz to do it. Besides, he…
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OTTAWA – As the CRTC prepares to review the relative success of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), it has released new numbers for the 2010-2011 period, ending August 31st, which indicate Shaw Communications paid the most into the fund, followed by Bell Canada and Rogers Cable.
Shaw (cable and satellite) combined to pay almost $32 million (an earlier version of this story had an erroneous amount for Shaw), followed by Bell at $25.08 million and Rogers at $24.05 million. Quebecor (Videotron) contributed $13.6 million and Cogeco, $6.77 million.
Shaw, the LPIF’s largest contributor, received only $8.06 million in…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC said today that it will continue to license satellite relay distribution undertakings (SRDUs) because of a lack of competition in that market, but will not incorporate the transport of pay and specialty services into SRDU licensing.
In its decision the Commission maintained that its dispute resolution process “remains the best way to address concerns regarding uplink fees that the Bell direct-to-home undertaking charges Canadian pay and specialty services for the transport of their signals to cable headends in cases where they do not need to use Bell’s SRDU facilities.” Canada’s only two SRDU operators, Shaw Satellite…
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GATINEAU – Hot on the heels of Shaw Communications’ application to review and vary the CRTC’s newly set policy on wholesale Internet, both Rogers Cable and now Videotron have also submitted similar appeals to the CRTC of its Telecom Regulatory Policy 2011-703, the so-called wholesale usage-based billing decision.
The decision quashed the idea of usage-based billing for third party independent internet service providers in favour of incumbents charging independent ISPs either a flat rate, or a rate based on capacity and the number of users. While most liked the idea, few liked the rates (independent ISPs…
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EXTON , PA – Mike LaJoie, executive vice-president and chief technology officer for Time Warner Cable, will deliver the keynote address at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Canadian Summit 2012 on in Toronto on March 27th.
LaJoie will discuss the need for cable engineering and operations professionals to maximize the value of new technologies as part of the opening session. His remarks will set the stage for the two-day conference, which is designed to advance understanding of innovative approaches and solutions that can help the industry to drive new services, reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction, says the SCTE.
"Mike…
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GENEVA – “In a world changing quickly, we must make the most of radio’s ability to connect people and societies, to share knowledge and information and to strengthen understanding. This World Radio Day is a moment to recognize the marvel of radio and to harness its power for the benefit of all,” says United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) director general, Irina Bokova, in celebration today of the first World Radio Day.
UNESCO chose February 13 to celebrate radio broadcast, improve international cooperation among radio broadcasters and encourage decision-makers to create and provide access to information through radio, including…
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VANCOUVER – Telus had a busy Friday.
On the financial front, the company released strong fourth quarter and full-year 2011 results across both its wireless and wireline networks. On the network technology side, the company turned on its LTE network in 14 markets from coast-to-coast.
Given the new, much-faster data capabilities of LTE (theoretically up to 75 Mbps download, but more practically somewhere in the 12-25 range), why isn’t Telus charging premium prices for the new devices and perhaps for different speeds of service, Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose asked Telus executives during…
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