OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC told all companies selling voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) service that they must be diligent when it comes to telling customers what they can and can’t do with 911.
Today’s CRTC edict requires all local voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service providers in Canada to provide specific notification to current and prospective customers regarding the availability, characteristics and limitations of their 911 and Enhanced 911 (E911) service. All local VoIP service providers will have to implement these requirements within 90 days of this decision.
Some of the notification requirements are:
* VoIP 911 service has…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Look for a local telephony price battle in Montreal.
The CRTC took a first step towards local telephony deregulation on Thursday when it granted – on an interim basis – Bell Canada’s request to price its voice over IP service differently in different regions. Until now, if telcos wanted to drop prices, it had to drop prices across its entire footprint and could not target certain markets.
However, in Quebec, MSO Videotron is offering local telephony for as little as $16 a month and Bell is losing thousands of customers per week.
Bell doesn’t face similar pricing…
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TORONTO – Allstream announced today that it is taking Rogers Communications to court over the latter’s decision to transfer long distance traffic from the Allstream network to Rogers’ recently acquired Call-Net system.
Allstream, the national division of Manitoba Telecom Services wants “a declaration that Rogers is not entitled to transfer certain long distance traffic from Allstream to Call-Net Enterprises Inc.,” says today’s press release.
Rogers and Allstream entered into a long distance services agreement in November, 2004, the initial term of which runs until December, 2006. Allstream maintains that under the agreement, Rogers is obliged to purchase all of…
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MISSISSAUGA – The theme of the next meeting of the Ontario Chapter of the SCTE, on November 3rd, is "Advanced Video Applications: HDTV and OpenCable.”
The speakers and their presentations include:
1) OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) Tutorial – Michael Malcy, vidiom systems 2) Preparing the Headend for Advanced Video Services’ Deployments, Chris Lapine, Director DTV Services Technology, Rogers Cable Inc. 3) HDTV Troubleshooting, Marco Petraglia, System Integrator, Rogers Cable Inc. 4) PVRs and Home Networking, XX, Digeo, Inc.
The full agenda for the day, to be held at the Mississauga Grand Convention Center, is on the…
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OTTAWA – The Government of Canada Wednesday dismissed complaints filed with the Governor in Council over two CRTC decisions awarding Vancouver radio station licenses.
On July 21, 2005, the CRTC awarded a radio license to South Asian Broadcasting Corporation Inc. to operate a new commercial specialty FM (ethnic) radio station at Vancouver at 93.1 MHz aimed at the South Asian community.
The same day, it also approved an AM radio application by I.T. Productions Ltd. for a new station at 1200 kHz also targeting Vancouver’s South Asian communities.
“The decisions… were found to be consistent with the policy objectives…
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TORONTO – G4techTV Canada announced today that digital cable and satellite subscribers of Rogers, Cogeco, Shaw, Videotron, Star Choice, Bell ExpressVu and Sasktel will get a free preview of the channel through November – and a chance to win a $5,000 digital makeover.
Viewers can win by spotting the G4techTV contest icon. Every time the icon is spotted, viewers can enter online (www.g4techtv.ca) by naming the show where they saw the icon. At the end of November, G4techTV will pick one lucky winner to win a $5,000 digital makeover for the hottest tech and gaming gadgets. Continue Reading
TORONTO – With cool new ring tones and downloadable music to some of its new phones, it only makes sense for Rogers Wireless to come on board as the title sponsor of Canadian Music Week.
CMW will take place March 1st-4th, 2006 in Toronto and is now in its 24th year. And, it’s now called Rogers Wireless Canadian Music Week Festival.
It happens in 30 downtown Toronto venues, and is a once-in-a-year opportunity for artists to get their music in front of over 3,000 movers and shakers in the industry, from record companies to radio executives and PDs.
Applications…
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IT AIN’T EASY BEING an independent broadcaster in the unlimited channel universe.
There are so many channels (traditional and otherwise) which serve the same niches of Stornoway’s three channels – news and current affairs service ichannel; dance station bpm:tv; and The Pet Network – that injecting them into the collective conscious psyche of viewers is difficult.
It means a lot of grassroots marketing work. A lot of pavement-pounding, because the budget to be able to afford a mass-marketing campaign just isn’t there.
Then there are the rumors of the company’s imminent sale, or demise, to deal with. By the…
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TORONTO – The news and diversity programming teams at Rogers OMNI Television are joining forces this weekend to present the Earthquake Relief Special, a commercial-free fund-raising appeal in support of South Asian earthquake relief efforts.
The one-hour program will air on OMNI.2 in place of regularly scheduling programming, Saturday, October 22nd starting at 8 p.m. ET. OMNI TV B.C. will air Earthquake Relief Special at 10 p.m. PT on Monday, October 24th.
The Earthquake Relief Special is the second major fundraiser for Rogers OMNI Television this year and the third in the new millennium, says the press release. While…
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TORONTO – Thanks to a partnership agreement which dates back to the beginnings of CanWest Global’s only analog specialty service, Prime TV, Rogers Communications wants to acquire one-third ownership of the channel.
In a nutshell, Rogers provided some start-up financing and covered some operating costs for the channel leading to and after its launch in 1997. In return, RCI received a subordinated debenture from CanWest, convertible into ownership of the channel, at RCI’s option.
The company has exercised its option and plans to take 33.3% ownership of CanWest’s channel.
CanWest has applied for CRTC approval for the ownership change….
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