MONTREAL – Rogers has signed a six year contract with Hydro-Quebec to connect its smart meter collectors across the province.
Rogers will connect Hydro Quebec’s central system with up to 600 smart meter collectors, which aggregate data relayed from some 3.8 million smart meters. As part of the deal, Rogers will partner with Xplorenet Communications to ensure satellite connectivity in remote parts of Quebec.
"We are proud to work with Hydro-Quebec to deliver this innovative, seamless turnkey business solution which will allow for real time connections across Quebec," said Philippe Sicotte, vice-president of business solutions, in the announcement. "Rogers deploys innovative business…
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FOR THOSE AMONG you who use Twitter, you’ll recognize the hashtags in the headline. For those who don’t, the hashtags are those # signs attached to words or acronyms that help those of us who use and like Twitter to keep track of topics and conversations on the micro-blogging site.
There are a number of conversations I follow when I “tune in” to Twitter, like #CRTC and #UBB for example, or #cts11 during the recent Canadian Telecom Summit (although this week, that hashtag means California Travel Summit). This week, we have a new one, #ivi, which is…
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IN OUR EVER-MORE connected world, there are fewer secrets. People talk, they e-mail, they SMS, Facebook, tweet and YouTube.
They often use those outlets to speculate, pontificate, fustigate, postulate and guesstimate. Which means those “secrets” are sometimes true. Sometimes not. Sometimes educated guesses. Sometimes hopeful. Sometimes fuelled by less than good intentions.
So, it’s a good idea once in a while to take a few of those secrets and rumours floating around and ask someone in charge about them – and also to put the issues of the day facing our industry in front of someone at the top.
For this Cartt.ca…
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CHICAGO—Bid adieu to the dueling cable next-generation access networks from Comcast and Time Warner Cable. The two giant U.S. MSOs have decided to bury the hatchet and merge their two proposed industry standards into one.
At the Cable Show here earlier this week, CableLabs announced that it has settled the budding technical and operational differences between the two next-gen architectures – Comcast’s Converged Multiservice Access Platform (CMAP) and Time Warner Cable’s Converged Edge Services Access Router (CESAR). Called the Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP), the new compromise standard will basically incorporate features from both networks.
CableLabs also released an updated technical…
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BANFF – The independent production community got a close look at the new terms of trade agreement on Tuesday during a standing room only breakfast session with the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) and representatives from Corus and Bell Media here at the Banff World Media Festival.
The deal, which was struck in April, applies to all independent productions produced by English-language Canadian independent television producers and private broadcasters Astral, Bell Media, Rogers Broadcasting, Shaw Media and Corus. Its terms, which came into effect on June 1st, apply to the entire life cycle of a show – from first…
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BANFF – Vertically integrated media companies in Canada are essential to the long term health and viability of the Canadian production industry, delegates at the 2011 Banff World Media Festival heard Sunday afternoon.
Speaking at a panel discussion called ‘Canadian Media Leaders: The State of the Nation’ here on opening day, it wasn’t a shock that representatives from Bell Media, Rogers Media and Shaw Media took that tack. But it was somewhat surprising that CBC and Astral, neither of whom is affiliated with a BDU, would agree so readily.
“There’s a lot to be said for how’s this industry has been working…
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BANFF – CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein is one busy guy these days – just ask him. “We have a hearing virtually every month which is unheard of”, he told Cartt.ca on Monday morning at the Banff World Festival.
A few of the biggest broadcast-related issues on his plate at the moment – the pending digital transition and the impact that the over-the-top services are having in Canada – figured prominently in his annual breakfast speech to delegates here on the confab’s first full day.
Congratulating the country’s TV broadcasters on their efforts to date to comply with August 31st deadline,…
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BANFF – It seems as though you can’t go far at the Banff World Media Festival without hearing talk about over-the-top (OTT) providers, and, depending on your point of view, whether they are a bane or boon to the Canadian broadcasting industry.
At a panel discussion on Monday called "OTT Services The Future of Television" — moderated by Telus’ Michael Hennessey — a Canadian cable company, broadcaster and the independent producers coalition faced down a trio of representatives from foreign OTT services Google TV, Boxee and Netflix. But with every expectation of fireworks, the predominant tone of the discussion seemed to be one…
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TORONTO – Shaw Media announced today it has made a couple of new hires in its marketing department.
Sherida German has been appointed to the newly created role of senior director, marketing, Global News. In this role, she will oversee all news marketing and community relations strategy for the Global stations across the country, as well as Global National. German first the company in 1998 and most recently negotiated the largest co-marketing initiative in the company’s history with Johnson & Johnson’s brand Motrin, which resulted in brand exposure for TVtropolis and Wipeout Canada in 1,400 major national retail outlets.
She will…
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TORONTO – As promised last week, Telus announced Monday the company is lowering its roaming voice and data rates by up to 60%.
With the launch of Telus’ new “clear and simple international travel pricing,” all customers will now get the same low roaming rates when they’re traveling. Separate travel bundles and passes will no longer be required to take advantage of the lowest rate, making it easy and hassle-free for customers to use Telus wireless services when overseas.
"After the launch of our new HSPA+ wireless network in late 2009, Telus was able to offer our customers a…
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