TORONTO – As his wireless company nears its launch in the new year, Public Mobile CEO Alek Kristajic was talking tough this week, addressing how the company plans to attack the Canadian marketplace while applauding the CRTC for standing firm on Globalive’s ownership shortcomings.
Speaking at the Scotia Capital 2010 Telecom and Tech Conference on Tuesday, Kristajic (a former Rogers Cable and Bell Canada executive) emphasized how he believes his company is going after a market that no one else has tended to yet: “the low end of the market that doesn’t have a cell phone,” he said.
When western markets…
Continue Reading
MOTOROLA MAY be looking to sell its business of making set-top boxes and other equipment for cable and phone companies, according to a story in Wednesday’s on-line version of the Wall Street Journal.
Most Canadian cable MSOs use Motorola set top boxes, with the exception of Rogers and Videotron
Possible buyers include private-equity firms and other communications-gear makers, the story speculates. J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are said to be advising Motorola on the possible sale, which could be worth $4.5 billion.
Click here for the full story.
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Rogers Wireless has signed a multi-year, exclusive agreement with Jasper Wireless to wirelessly connect consumer electronics and machine-to-machine (M2M) devices.
Through this partnership, Rogers said that it plans to accelerate market entry for new categories of connected devices such as personal navigation and e-readers.
"Jasper Wireless provides a global platform that allows us to accelerate market entry for companies that need to provision and manage their connected devices, while delivering a best-in-class user experience," said Mansell Nelson, Rogers’ VP of M2M and partners, in the announcement. "This platform coupled with Rogers’ proven, most reliable GPRS/EDGE/HSPA network provides an M2M…
Continue Reading
EXTON, Pa. – The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers has opened its call for nominations for the 2010 Young Canadian Engineering Professional of the Year Award, sponsored by Aurora Networks, and with publishing partner Cartt.ca.
SCTE developed the award and presented it for the first time at the inaugural SCTE Canadian Summit, which took place in February. The award is designed to annually recognize a young cable telecommunications engineering professional in Canada who is already making his or her mark on the industry.
The 2009 recipient was Rogers Cable’s Boris Culum.
The 2010 award will be presented during the 2010 SCTE…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Virgin chair Sir Richard Branson has called for the establishment of new standards for the mobile industry that would abolish “bogus” fees and force mobile companies to stop “misleading consumers”.
In an apparent response to Rogers’ plan to drop its system access fee but add a new fee called the government regulatory recovery fee, Virgin has launched a national ad campaign that it says “directly calls out Rogers’ bogus fee”.
“I’d like to congratulate Rogers for removing one fee that never made sense, but I’m perplexed to hear that they’ve replaced it with another equally confusing one”, Branson said…
Continue Reading
DENVER–Striving to chop energy costs, protect the environment, and placate increasingly demanding regulators, major North American cable operators are starting to take steps to cut power consumption and carbon emissions.
In a “green” general session staged here at last week’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2009, executives from four large MSOs and two prominent cable trade groups spelled out ways that cable providers are beginning to reduce their carbon footprints. They also discussed promising measures that cable operators can adopt to cut pollution further in the future.
D’Arcy Brown, director of optical transport and facilities, network planning group, for Rogers Cable Communications,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Phil Lind delights in telling everyone that Rogers Television, the big cableco’s community TV arm, is 100% local and 100% Canadian “unlike the big broadcasters who say they’re ‘intensely local’,” he said.
The executive vice-president, regulatory and vice-chairman of Rogers Communications launched Rogers Television 40 years ago and hosted a small gathering of journalists Tuesday to talk about the milestone – and given the hub-bub over local TV – to also use the little gathering to note that the cable community channels have been intensely local for a long time.
“We cover the issues the big broadcasters don’t have…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – High Fidelity channels Oasis HD, Equator HD, Treasure HD and Rush HD have begun a month long free preview.
Available on Rogers, Bell TV, EastLink, Sasktel and Source Cable, the company hired ad agency Endeavour to handle the campaign and the media buy, which features radio, television, and print elements.
“We know once viewers sample our exceptional programming, they love our channels and stay with us,” said High Fidelity HDTV co-founder Ken Murphy, in a statement. “We chose Endeavour to help convey the tremendous visual quality of our HD line up in a consumer campaign that targets Ontario viewers.”
To…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA and TORONTO – A pared-down basic programming package, with its content and pricing determined by the CRTC, could be the solution to affordability if fee-for-carriage is implemented, the CBC said.
In a submission to the Commission on Monday, the public broadcaster recommended that BDUs adopt an all-Canadian basic package which includes only the “essentials”, such as local television stations, plus “a very limited number” of other licensed programming services.
Calling it a “win-win-win scenario”, CBC said that its proposal would benefit BDUs, consumers, and broadcasters alike.
“It’s a win for cable companies because they’ll have all the flexibility that…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – On the same day as its biggest competitor rolled out its new HSPA network, Rogers beefed up its smart phone lineup to underscore its “network superiority”.
Just in time for the holiday season, Rogers said that it will offer the Nokia N86 smart phone which features an 8 megapixel camera and 8 GB of on-board memory to store music, movies and photos. The N86 will join the just-launched Rogers-exclusive LG Eve and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 as part of five smart phones now available for under $100 on a three-year voice and data plan.
"Rogers customers can…
Continue Reading
