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…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw Communications’ Big Pipe division announced today the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) has chosen it to provide them with high-speed data services.
After a formal bid process, Big Pipe was contracted to provide Transparent LAN Service (TLS) between the CBE’s data centres, to facilitate high-availability bandwidth for business continuity.
"The CBE has growing data needs," said Cindy Seibel, director, information and technology services, at the CBE. "We needed a bandwidth provider to supply an innovative, custom solution for our particular network challenges, and Big Pipe delivered."
The CBE currently supports close to 100,000 students and has…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw Communications said Wednesday that it plans to implement DOCSIS 3.0 products as soon as it can.
The company issued a press release saying so.
CableLabs recently released its data over cable service interface specifications (DOCSIS) 3.0 specs which, when implemented in the future it will enable data speeds of 160 Mbps or higher available in the downstream, and 120 Mbps or higher in the upstream.
The announcement, "presents Shaw with the opportunity to strengthen its cable service offerings by developing and implementing cutting-edge technologies sooner and faster," says the Shaw release.
"As a member of CableLabs,…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Whistler Cable is the latest small cable system to sell to Shaw Communications.
Shaw announced it has signed a deal to buy Whistler Cable Television Ltd., subject to approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Whistler Cable operates cable and Internet systems in Whistler and Pemberton, British Columbia.
This year, Shaw has already purchased Pemberton Cable and Norcom Cable.
"Whistler Cable is an excellent system and a perfect fit with Shaw’s existing systems on the West Coast, as well with the system that we recently acquired from Coast Mountain Communications Inc. which also operates in Pemberton….
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw Cable’s top speed service is now speedier, the company announced today.
Shaw’s High-Speed Xtreme-I service now allows customers to download Internet files at 10Mbps, a 40% increase, says the company. Shaw’s High-Speed Xtreme-I customers will automatically receive the upgraded service at no extra cost.
www.shaw.ca
Continue Reading
REGINA – SaskTel’s digital TV service, Max TV, will launch Turner Classic Movies Tuesday.
TBS and the Saskatchewan telco made the announcement Monday. TCM will launch as part of the Variety Theme Pack on Channel 132.
The two main cable competitors in the province, Shaw in Saskatoon and other areas, and Access Communications in Regina and surrounding communities, both carry TCM already.
TCM offers 24 hours of uncut and commercial-free movies – made anywhere from the 1920s to the 1990s – every day of the week.
www.tcm.com www.sasktel.com
Continue Reading
CALGARY and KENORA – Shaw Communications has signed a deal to purchase Norcom Telecommunications Limited it was announced today.
Kenora Ont.-based Norcom operates cable systems located in Northwestern Ontario including Kenora, Red Lake, Sioux Lookout, Ear Falls and Ignace, and owns the local television station, CJBN-TV Kenora. It is owned by LeBlanc & Royal, the former broadcast tower manufacturer, which has been selling off most of its assets for a few years.
The station, which is available on ExpressVu and Star Choice, is sort of a small superstation which is branded as a CTV station (it carries the CTV…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Thanks to continuing strong wireless and high speed Internet subscriber growth, Telus reported a 6% increase in revenues to $2.1 billion in the second quarter, as compared to the same period a year ago.
EBITDA increased 4% to $897.1 million and operating income jumped 10.5% to $515 million.
"Our national wireless and data growth strategy continues to generate strong consolidated top and bottom line growth for Telus despite the challenging wireline environment," said company CEO Darren Entwistle.
"Wireless revenue, which is now 44% of consolidated revenue, was up 18% in the second quarter. However, Telus’ wireless operations…
Continue Reading
