TORONTO – Keying off an internal CableLabs research paper, a Wall Street Journal report said yesterday that cable operators may need to spend billions on more rounds of network upgrades.
The newspaper story (subscription required) quoted the leaked document from Cable Television Laboratories – the cable industry’s R&D and specifications arm – saying that broadband video growth at places such as Google and YouTube, coupled with the multibillion-dollar spend by Verizon to get fibre to the premises and roll out digital television, will require CableLabs members to dig into their wallets for yet another rebuild.
The story also…
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TORONTO – Residents in communities across Ontario including: Belleville, Chatham, Dundas, Ancaster, Welland, Milton, Georgetown, Tecumseh and Trenton can now get local telephony from Rogers Communications (and none of those towns are Rogers Cable areas).
Rogers Home Phone celebrated its first anniversary on July 1, 2006 with nearly 550,000 customers.
"Communities across Ontario can now benefit from the choice provided by Rogers Home Phone service," said Phil Hartling, vice-president and general manager, Rogers Home Phone. "Consumers who choose to switch to Rogers Home Phone service can keep their same phone and phone number, all while receiving a better service…
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SIGNIFICANT. MARKET. POWER.
Those three words appear all through the Telecom Policy Review Report, which Cartt.ca has covered at length. According to my search of that document, the three words appear together 62 times, and a further 65 as its SMP acronym.
When reading that huge report, it’s easy to see how SMP was and is a very big deal to its authors. The Telecom Policy Review Panel was very conscious of the concept and how the companies with SMP might still have to be watched. It’s a key concept of the report.
But you wouldn’t know it from…
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TORONTO – MTV’s Laguna Beach can be seen everywhere this fall as it launches on a total of six platforms, specialty, broadband, VOD, mobile, conventional TV, and live.
"Our audience is constantly demanding more. More content. More places. More access – and when it comes to Laguna Beach, more drama," said Brad Schwartz, senior vice-president and general manager, MTV. "Canadians are grabbing the entertainment they want on whatever device they want and MTV will be there to deliver that all-important Laguna-fix. The new media model is to be ‘everywhere at once’ and Laguna Beach is the ultimate example of…
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THE FOOD INDUSTRY WAS never this exciting, says Videotron president and CEO Robert Dépatie.
In the 1990s, he was in charge of the Planters brand in Quebec and prior to that, held positions with Heinz. The sheer volume of food processing technology was nothing then as compared to what his cable company faces today. The acronyms are endless: VOIP, VOD, HDTV, iTV, IPTV, DOCSIS and so on.
Last week, the MSO launched its own branded wireless service, riding on the Rogers Wireless backbone, giving it a fourth valuable service option and allowing a family’s entire telecom bill, beginning to…
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TORONTO – Rogers Sportsnet’s Hockeycentral team will start lunching downtown next month.
Rogers’ all-sports station The Fan 590 and Sportsnet announced Friday the addition of Hockeycentral At Noon to each of the properties lineups starting Monday September 11th at noon.
The one-hour show features host Daren Millard and co-host Nick Kypreos discussing all the latest news from the hockey world.
The show will take place from The Fan 590 studios and simulcast on Rogers Sportsnet Ontario, "continuing the on-going synergy between the two media partners," says the press release. The Fan’s Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown airs from…
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QUEBEC – Videotron Wireless hit the Quebec City market today as the fourth leg in the Quebecor division’s video, data and telecom stool.
As reported on Monday, the company officially launched its wireless phone service today with a number of different handsets and service plans. The one that might get the most attention is its $94.95 a month bundle of wireless phone, wireline phone, digital TV and Internet service.
Videotron Wireless, which is running on the Rogers Wireless network, will be available to the rest of its cable territories by the end of the calendar year. It will offer…
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MARKHAM – Free, sponsored golf lessons are now available on demand through Rogers Digital Cable.
Capital Networks, Markham, Ont., produced the golf lessons that will be available to approximately one million Rogers customers with a digital box. Each of the 24 episodes is sponsored by Chrysler Canada and was shot at The Club at Bond Head, just north of Toronto.
The series host is Nigel Hollidge, director of golf operations at The Club at Bond Head. Hollidge works with Canadian PGA touring professional Ian Leggatt and Matt McQuillan, an up and coming touring pro, in the various video segments….
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STE-FOY – Quebecor’s cable company, Videotron, will launch its wireless telephony product on Thursday.
A press conference at one of the company’s Super Club stores in Ste-Foy heralds the arrival of Videotron Wireless (although we’re unsure of the actual brand name).
Videotron’s subscribers will be connected to the Rogers Wireless network as the cable company announced in 2005 it had worked out a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or MVNO, utilizing wireless voice and data services provided by Rogers Wireless across its GSM/GPRS network. This is the same arrangement Virgin Mobile Canada has with Bell Mobility, for example.
Surf…
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TORONTO – So will TV on your "Crackberry" make the device even more addictive? Thanks to an agreement made official today, we’re about to find out.
As first reported in May by Cartt.ca, CanWest MediaWorks has licensed an application with U.S. tech company Sona Mobile to bring television to Research In Motion’s popular BlackBerrys. However, only those with the 7130g and 8700 models will be able to take advantage of the service. CanWest is the first broadcaster in North America to launch the service.
CanWest has signed a marketing partnership with Rogers Wireless and Rogers Sportsnet to offer free players…
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