OTTAWA – The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage begins its study of “the impacts of private television ownership changes and the move towards new viewing platforms,” today in Ottawa and will hear first from CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein and a group of independent Canadian broadcasters this afternoon.
Watch for the CRTC chairman (who will be joined by acting vice-chair, broadcasting, Rita Cugini and executive director, broadcasting, Scott Hutton) to speak to the recent merger announcements as well as the proceeding just called into the very same topic about which MPs will be grilling the Regulator’s representatives this afternoon.
As for…
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THUNDER BAY, ON – Tbaytel launched its new 3G HSPA mobility service in Thunder Bay on Wednesday.
The regional telco said that the network will expand to the communities of Sioux Lookout, Dryden, Red Lake and Kenora by the end of the year, and beginning in January 2011, services are scheduled for deployment in Atikokan, Fort Frances, Rainy River and Nipigon. Full deployment of the new 3G HSPA technology is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2011.
“Our customers will benefit from improved access to high speed wireless voice and data services, a broad base of handset technology…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile’s complaint to the CRTC over its customers’ dropped calls due to so-called “hard handoffs” is not something the Commission needs to deal with, says Rogers Communications.
As reported by Cartt.ca, Wind wants the Commission to grant it soft handoffs so that its customers aren’t hung up on as they move beyond a Wind network zone as they talk. A hard handoff, for example, means a Wind customer call is cut off as she moves out of out of a Wind network zone into a Rogers area, which is Wind’s roaming partner. A soft, or seamless,…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada CEO George Cope couldn’t have been more blunt or matter of fact when asked about what the auction of 700 MHz wireless spectrum, which is expected in 2012. “It has to be a wide open auction,” he said. “There can be no discussion on this.”
Cope was speaking Tuesday afternoon at the Scotia Capital 2010 Telecom and Technology conference in downtown Toronto.
Cope spoke just after both Globalive (Wind Mobile) chairman Anthony Lacavera and Public Mobile CFO Jim Hardy had addressed the very same issue – albeit with different opinions than Cope, or earlier in the…
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OTTAWA – Developments in the mobile payments space have been slow and ongoing for a number of years but those efforts are beginning to bear some fruit, said vice-president of emerging business at Rogers Communications Inc. David Robinson.
However, he cautioned, there is still work to do.
Speaking at the 2010 Mobile Money Forum in Ottawa last week, the Rogers’ executive talked about the Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative and how efforts among a large number of international mobile operators, handset makers and the Global Mobile System Association (GSMA) are making headway. In a nutshell, the initiative is trying to combine the…
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TORONTO – Rogers has opened up several of its application programming interfaces (APIs) to developers for the first time.
According to a post on RedBoard, the company’s blog, Rogers Catalyst Beta is now live and will allow developers and businesses to bring new, custom mobile applications or services to market more quickly than before.
“Rogers is making a commitment to work closely with third-party developers to make it easier to bring exciting new apps and services to market faster than ever before”, reads a separate post on the Rogers Catalyst Beta site. “We have reduced the barriers to a minor…
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TORONTO – Rogers will purchase for cancellation 2,000,000 of its outstanding class B non-voting shares for an aggregate purchase price of $67,662,200.
This represents approximately 0.44% of the class B shares outstanding at October 31, 2010. Rogers said that the private purchase, made under an issuer bid exemption order issued by the Ontario Securities Commission, is priced at a discount to the current market price of the class B shares.
www.rogers.com
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MONTREAL – Stingray Digital is adding music video content from Sony Music Entertainment Canada to its Galaxie Music videos on demand service.
The first service of its kind in Canada, Galaxie Music Videos on Demand (MVOD) allows viewers to select their choice of music videos, or select and watch professionally-programmed music video playlists. The service is currently available free to all Rogers digital cable customers and will soon be available with other television service providers.
"The Galaxie Music Videos On Demand service is one of the most popular VOD services on Rogers On Demand”, said Stingray Digital president, Eric Boyko, in…
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TORONTO – Rogers Media has taken on the role of digital media sales agent for NBA Canada.
Through this partnership, Rogers will sell advertising across NBA.com platforms including display ads, video content and mobile applications. It said that it plans to leverage the NBA’s sports and lifestyle brand to develop customized programs for Canadian advertisers looking to connect with the NBA’s growing fan base in the country.
"We are thrilled to add NBA.com to our already outstanding stable of premium brands," said SVP and GM Claude Galipeau, in the announcement. "The world class quality of the NBA brand coupled with their…
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TORONTO – A day after his surprise departure from CBC, Scott Moore has been named to the new position of president of broadcasting for Rogers Media. Rogers also announced that Leslie Sole will be promoted to the newly created position of chief content officer.
"The breadth of industry knowledge that Leslie and Scott bring to the table will be of great benefit," said president Keith Pelley, in Wednesday’s announcement. "It’s an exciting time in our industry and Leslie and Scott will ensure that Rogers Media is positioned to perform in a feverishly competitive environment."
Beginning December 6th, Moore will oversee…
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