TORONTO – Cell tower sharing remains a white hot topic for wireless competitors and the issue raised its head Tuesday morning during the Canadian Telecom Summit’s annual regulatory blockbuster panel, moderated again this year by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien.
Although mandated tower sharing was included in the 2008 AWS spectrum auction rules – as it will be for next year’s 700MHz spectrum auction – the problems for new wireless entrants are the growing costs to share tower space and that access rules are not adhered to by the three incumbents, said Ed Antecol, vice-president of regulatory affairs and…
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TORONTO – Shaw Media announced today it is the first Canadian media company to join Twitter’s new Amplify program.
Twitter’s recently launched program allows media brands – and their advertisers – to include short video clips from televised shows or sporting events within their tweets to complement their broadcasts, and get their message in front of viewers on their tablets and smartphones. U.S. media companies including A&E, Discovery, MLB.com, Time Inc. and New York magazine have already partnered with Twitter on the program.
Shaw says Amplify Media is an integrated cross-platform tool that allows advertisers…
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OTTAWA – The federal government said Tuesday that Telus can not buy Mobilicity right now and also pushed out the date of the auction of 700 MHz wireless spectrum to January of 2014.
Mobilicity’s network is built with AWS spectrum that was set aside for new competitors in 2008 and part of the rules of that set aside meant the spectrum could not be transferred to an incumbent for five years, a period which does not expire until February 2014. "Our government has been clear that spectrum set aside for new entrants was not intended to…
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TORONTO – Frantic Films has appointed Brenda Greenberg as executive vice-president of scripted development.
Greenberg, who will be based out of Frantic Films’ Toronto office, started her career at NBC and was a producer on the Emmy-award winning series As The World Turns at CBS. She has played a key role in several television series including Being Erica, The Best Years, Kenny vs. Spenny, Side Effects, and Street Legal.
She has been lauded for her work with emerging…
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TORONTO – Blue Ant Media has appointed Jamie Schouela to executive vice-president, marketing and communications, effective June 10.
Jamie was most recently vice-president of marketing at Shaw Media, overseeing all marketing and communications activity for Global Television and the 19 specialty channels. Prior to that he spent five years leading marketing for Global Television including top 10 hits Glee, House, and Survivor as well as Global National news.
He has won both Promax and Canadian Marketing…
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MONTREAL – Surprising no one, BCE announced Friday it has extended its takeover offer of Astral Media to July 31, 2013 as it awaits regulatory approval for the transaction.
The original expiry date to close the deal was June 1.
The Competition Bureau approved Bell’s second iteration of its proposal to purchase Astral back in March, which was followed by a week-long CRTC hearing earlier this month to review the new proposal.
Bell included a number of revised provisions in its second submission regarding the Astral deal, including new regulatory safeguards and a…
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OTTAWA – Telesat announced today that Axesat SA, a Colombia-based provider of VSAT services in South America, has signed a long-term contract for capacity on Telesat’s new Anik G1 satellite.
Anik G1 began commercial operations earlier this month and is now providing communications services across the Americas. For South America, Anik G1 brings new C-band and Ku-band capacity to a region where Telesat has been capacity constrained.
“Axesat is a leader in South American VSAT services with over 6,000 sites and we are delighted with their decision to use the powerful Ku-band capacity of…
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MONTREAL – Videotron and Rogers announced an agreement late Wednesday to bring LTE to even more customers in the province of Québec and the Ottawa region.
Under a new 20-year agreement, the two companies will pool their efforts to quickly build out and operate a shared LTE wireless network, the most advanced wireless technology in the world. This network will deliver an optimal user experience for consumers and businesses in both key markets (and perhaps let Videotron launch the iPhone, which does not work on its current AWS spectrum).
In addition to the network sharing agreement, Videotron and Rogers have also…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications’ satellite TV division Shaw Direct announced today it has added more than 120 new HD channels to its channel lineup.
The launch, thanks to Telesat’s newest bird, the Anik G1 satellite, gives Shaw Direct customers the most HD channels in Canada, says the company, delivering more than 210 HD channels to its customers.
In addition to the HD channel launch, Anik G1 also allows Shaw Direct to expand its programming offerings to include more local Canadian channels, pay-per-view and Shaw Direct On Demand. "The launch of Anik G1 represents a significant investment by…
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TORONTO – Blue Ant Media announced today that its specialty commercial-free, HD channels HIFI, eqHD and radX will be available to Shaw Cable customers in a free preview until July 4, 2013. Shaw Direct customers will also have access to Blue Ant’s channels until August 29, 2013.
HIFI, which celebrates music, art and design, is on Shaw Cable channel #249 and on Shaw Direct channel #132 (Classic) and #632 (Advanced). Featuring adventure programming and classic action ,movies, radX can be found on Shaw Cable channel #248 and on Shaw Direct #134 (Classic) #634 (Advanced)….
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