WHEN PEOPLE FIND OUT I AM the president of Babytel, an independent provider of high-speed Internet phone service, the first question I get is about our name, (most love it), followed closely by “how in the world can you compete against the big guys?”
How we compete is quite simple: we are finding unique opportunities, such as being the VOIP backbone for partners like independent cable companies and ISPs, and we are selling to niche markets like Asian and African communities in Canada.
(I will refer the genesis of our name to later.)
There is incredible opportunity. VOIP opens…
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TORONTO – Contractor Cancable Inc. announced this week it has signed a Master Installation and Service Agreement using Rogers FSMS technology with Rogers Cable
The agreement covers the period from September 1, 2005 until August 31, 2008. The agreement outlines the terms and conditions under which Cancable will continue to provide its services to Rogers Cable. "We continue to see strong demand for Cancable’s services within the broadband services deployment sector and being able to execute this contract with Rogers Cable and strengthen the long term relationship is a significant milestone for Cancable Inc. and CVAS," said Sayan Navaratnam,…
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DESPITE THE IMMINENT SHUTDOWN of the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association, a move which will cost 26 jobs, Canada’s smaller independent operators have already decided they must have a continuing presence in Ottawa.
As reported first by www.cartt.ca early Friday afternoon, Rogers Cable, the largest remaining member of the CCTA, decided to rescind its support of the association, effectively killing it – even though no other member wanted to pull the plug. Even Rogers didn’t really want to do it.
However, no CCTA member is blaming Rogers for the demise of the 50-plus year-old association. Indeed, the CCTA’s board of…
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MONTREAL – Subscribers to Videotron’s illico digital cable are able to access Olympic coverage from Radio-Canada, the French-language network of the CBC, via video on demand.
Under an agreement announced Friday, over 160 hours of programming will be available free of charge and without commercial interruption on VOD throughout the 2006 Winter Games in Torino.
Illico customers will be able to go to channel 900 to watch the competitions and the opening and closing ceremonies 24 hours after they are broadcast on Radio-Canada, which is the same as what Rogers is getting from CBC in its territories.
“We are…
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BARCELONA – Tests of its next-generation voice and data network will wrap up early, as in next month, Rogers Wireless said today, so that it can do a commercial launch this fall.
At the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Rogers said its High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) will make Rogers the fastest mobile wireless data network in Canada. It will also be among the first wireless carriers in the world to deploy this latest generation of GSM technology, the dominant world-wide standard for mobile wireless communications.
About 80% of the world’s wireless operators use GSM while the rest,…
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TORONTO – Portuguese language channel TV Globo Internacional has been added to the Ontario channel lineups for Rogers Digital Cable customers.
TV Globo Internacional brings Portuguese programming from Brazil such as news, sports, soap operas, comedy, children’s programs and musical shows and service.
"With the addition of TV Globo Internacional, Rogers continues to offer the most multicultural programming with broadcasts in 20 different languages on 44 multicultural channels," says the press release.
The free preview of TV Globo Internacional will end on March 31st, 2006. TV Globo Internacional can then be had for $14.95 a month or for $19.95…
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OTTAWA – Bragg Communications, the parent company of Halifax-based MSO EastLink, has appealed to the CRTC to expand what can be shown in the two minutes of ad time U.S. cable channels make available for local ads.
CRTC regulations currently say that cable companies may only promote their video or audio services within that avail time. Cablecos can claim 25% of the time and must give the rest up, at cost, to Canadian broadcasters to promote their channels. Channels like CNN and the Golf Channel make two minutes per hour available to its carriers to sell advertising, which is…
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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Worldwide cable telephony service revenues rose from US$4.5 billion in 2004 to US$5.6 billion in 2005, and are projected to reach US$10 billion by 2009, reports American research firm In-Stat.
"The widening availability of VOIP-based cable telephony services has resulted in thousands of new cable telephony subscribers for operators like Time Warner Cable and Cablevision in the United States, Videotron and Shaw Communications in Canada, and Liberty Global in Europe," says the In-Stat release.
"The key attraction for cable operators is the cost advantage that VOIP offers in comparison with circuit-switched service," says Michael Paxton, In-Stat analyst….
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TORONTO – Revenue growth at Rogers media for the three months ended December 31, 2005 was $34 million, an increase of 12.8% over the fourth quarter of 2004.
Nearly half of the increase over the prior year is due to higher advertising on Rogers Sportsnet due to the return of NHL hockey, said the company’s fourth quarter release today. In addition, revenue from the Blue Jays and Rogers Centre grew $6.6 million over last year reflecting increased attendance and healthy league revenue sharing. The remaining growth over the prior year is due to increased advertising revenue across all Media…
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TORONTO – Thanks to integration expenses (of Microcell and Call-Net), Rogers Communications posted a loss of $66.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2005, ended December 31st..
While that’s a far larger quarterly loss than in Q4 2004, the wireless, cable, telecom, and media giant’s annual loss was 33.5% lower than last year at $44.6 million.
Revenue in the quarter was $2.12 billion, a 35.4% increase over the same period last year and operating profit was $513 million, a 14% jump. Revenue for the full year was $7.48 billion, a 33.4% increase while OP was $2.14 billion, a 23.6%…
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