DELTA, B.C. – One of the original British Columbia cable systems, Delta Cable, is changing hands.
Persona Communications agreed to purchase the 38,500-customer cable company based in Delta, B.C. (including its Coast Cable operation) late Wednesday. President and CEO of Delta, John Thomas, the son of late company founder Stan Thomas, is said to be retiring.
Financial terms were not released and the deal is pending CRTC approval.
Stan Thomas, one of the industry’s true pioneers, founded the cable company in 1954 and was one of the creators of the Canadian Cable Television Association, which first met in 1957….
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications launched Shaw Digital Phone in Burnaby, B.C. this week.
Included in the flat rate service is anytime calling in Canada and the U.S., and 1,000 anytime international calling minutes per month to popular destinations in Asia Pacific and Europe and six popular calling features, including: voice mail, call waiting, call forward, call return, three-way calling, and call display.
The introductory rate us $29.95 per month for the first three months, and $55 per month after that when bundled with any other Shaw service.
www.shaw.ca
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YELLOWKNIFE – After a year of successful operation in the north, Northwestel is launching its NetKaster satellite high speed Internet service in the south.
NetKaster has been expanded to communities throughout Alberta, expanding on its current service in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, launched a year ago. The company will target rural and remote areas not already served by cable or DSL Internet service.
NetKaster is powered by Telesat Canada’s Anik F2 satellite. The service is the result of an agreement between Northwestel Cable and Telesat Canada. Both Northwestel and Telesat are owned by Bell Canada.
"We developed this…
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TORONTO – "This year’s second quarter EBITDA is greater than the full EBITDA of 1996… the six months EBITDA is higher than the full year in 2002," Rogers Communications CEO Ted Rogers said this morning in unveiling the company’s second quarter results, for the three months ended June 30th.
Consolidated revenue grew 29% to $2.24 billion in the quarter and consolidate operating profit increased 31% to $742 Million.
As for individual customer figures, wireless postpaid ARPU grew 6.9% and postpaid Churn fell to 1.27%. Residential and business local telephony lines have passed 735,000
All three of the company’s operating…
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CALGARY and AUSTIN, TX – Shaw Communications subsidiary Big Pipe Inc., which provides data networking and Internet services to businesses, has purchased an OC-192-based U.S. network backbone service from Broadwing.
The 10 Gbps of dedicated bandwidth provided by the upgrade will increase Big Pipe’s capacity on three key routes: Seattle to San Jose, Calif.; San Jose to Chicago; and Ashburn, Va., to New York, says the press release.
"The multi-million dollar agreement builds on the reciprocal relationship established between the two companies in 2004. That agreement provided for Broadwing to supply network services to Big Pipe in the United States…
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TORONTO – The move won’t help Canadian subscriptions to the NFL Network for the next few years, but TSN’s latest programming addition will make more NFL games widely available in Canada.
Today, TSN and the National Football League announced the network has secured exclusive Canadian rights to the NFL’s Thursday/Saturday eight-game regular season broadcast package, beginning this season and continuing through 2008 (which means the games on the NFL Network will be blacked out in Canada).
Stateside, the league has kept these games for itself, and will be airing them on its own NFL Network, which is available in…
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CALGARY – Corus Custom Networks, the division of Corus Entertainment that books and runs ads on Shaw Cable’s TV listings channels, introduced a new format for its TV Listings Channels (pictured) on Tuesday.
The company will roll out the new design (pictured below) in 77 markets across Western Canada throughout the summer. The TV Listings Channels will shift from a vertically-split to a horizontally-split format that displays the TV Listings guide along the bottom half of the screen with the top half split into two advertising blocks.
One block will feature advertising in conventional 4 x 3 broadcast format, enabling…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications launched its local phone service on B.C.’s Saanich Peninsula (the southern tip of Vancouver Island) this week.
As a primary home line, Shaw Digital Phone offers unlimited local and long distance calling within Canada and the U.S., as well as 1,000 international calling minutes per month to some of the most popular international destinations in Asia Pacific, Europe and the U.K. Also included in the service is a bundle of six popular calling features, such as Voicemail and Call Waiting, plus professional installation, 24/7/365 customer service support, enhanced 911 access, Operator and 411 service
It’s…
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THE TECHNOLOGY IS the easy part. Everything else is maybe just a bit frustrating.
The regulatory landscape for voice over Internet protocol, Vonage Canada’s raison d’etre, may be changing underfoot and the company has had its share of scrapes with incumbent telcos and cable companies. A particularly bitter one with Shaw Communications is still active in the courts and in front of the Commission, as we’ve reported.
Through it all, Vonage’s chief Canadian executive, president Bill Rainey, seems pretty upbeat. The former Group Telecom and Telus executive and manager is convinced he can beat the bundle being…
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TORONTO – Don Iannetta of Toronto will get a $10,000 Sony entertainment system and a free subscription for a year for being Rogers Cable’s one millionth digital cable customer, the company announced today.
The company said its "dramatic growth in digital penetration is evidenced by the 187% increase from December 2003 until the company reached its millionth customer in June 2006.
"Rogers On Demand on channel 100 is fantastic. I’ve been able to watch all kinds of programming and movies whenever I want. My favourite so far was being able to watch all of the FIFA World Cup soccer…
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