TORONTO – By the end of 2006 Canadian cable companies will have 12% (1.57 million) of residential telephone subscribers in Canada and 27% by year-end 2009 (3.35 million), says a new report released today.
This is up from 6% at the end of ’05 (835,000), says the latest installment of The Convergence Consulting Group’s "Battle for the North American Couch Potato: Bundling, Internet, TV, Telephone."
While the inroads traditional cable companies are making in voice are strong, the report doesn’t have a similar forecast when it comes to the traditional ILEC’s push into video. Telcos will have 2% (220,000)…
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CALGARY – Cybersurf, an independent Canadian ISP, announced Monday it would offer free high speed Internet access to customers choosing its voice product.
The company is near completion of its national VOIP and cable high speed service and will use the Shaw, Rogers and Videotron backbones to provide its service.
To BR: branded CIA Local Phone in the Toronto market, Cybersurf’s service is offered as a competitive alternative to Bell and Rogers’ local phone service, and includes E911, 411, free unlimited local calling in the 416 area code, free call features and low domestic and international long distance rates….
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By Greg O’Brien
I REMEMBER WHEN THEN-CRTC broadcasting vice-chair Andrée Wylie told the 1999 CCTA convention in Vancouver that the Commission had no intention of trying to regulate the Internet.
Because of it’s very nature, it’s impossible to regulate the Internet itself (unless you’re China or some other repressive government that deploys some painful cyber-clamps and doesn’t mind tossing people in jail for reading the New York Times or somesuch online), which the CRTC recognized early on. Plus, 1999 was pre tech-bubble and the opportunities of the ‘net seemed endless. Why toss up regulations in front of such potential?
That Commission…
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CALGARY and FT. LAUDERDALE – American voice over IP provider Zingotel has filed a $1.2 million civil suit in Alberta against Shaw Communications.
Zingo, Inc. warned in January it would file a lawsuit, which it did late last week. It also said the CRTC can expect to hear from it as well. Zingo alleges that Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw personally told Corus Entertainment executives not to run ads for Zingotel’s service on any Corus channels, after Zingotel had booked the ads. The statement does not say which channels had the ads booked. Shaw and Corus are owned and…
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OTTAWA – In a submission which generally backs a cable company’s request to use the local avail ad time to market its telephony and high speed Internet products along with programming services, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has also asked the CRTC for more cost clarity.
An intervention filed with the Commission last week mostly supports an application made by Halifax-based MSO EastLink to expand what the broadcast distribution regulations say can be promoted during the so-called "local availability" time on American cable channels. Those channels (like CNN, A&E and The Golf Channel) make two minutes per hour of…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications launched its VoIP service in Fort McMurray, AB today, offering unlimited local and long distance calls within Canada and the U.S. for a flat monthly rate.
The service is at an introductory rate of $29.95 per month for the first three months and then $55 a month after that when bundled with at least one other Shaw service.
“Shaw digital phone is providing phenomenal value to our customers and we look forward to providing that same quality experience to Fort McMurray residents,” said Jim Shaw, CEO of Shaw Communications Inc. “With a large number of…
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OTTAWA – It didn’t take long for the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to find someone who knows the ins and outs of the new federal Conservative leadership.
It was announced Friday that Elizabeth Roscoe is joining the CAB as senior vice-president policy and public affairs as of April 10th.
Roscoe’s most recent job in communications and media was as senior vice-president external affairs for the Canadian Cable Television Association, a position she left in 2003 to join Carleton University as executive director, partnership development. Prior to her last stint at the CCTA, she was VP government relations for Shaw…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications said Friday its Digital Phone service is now available to Airdrie, Cochrane, High River and Okotoks, all communities surrounding Calgary.
Shaw Digital Phone offers unlimited local and long distance calls within Canada and the U.S., including Hawaii and Alaska, plus 1,000 international calling minutes per month to certain regions in Asia Pacific, Europe and the U.K
Shaw Digital Phone is currently offered in Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and Vancouver at an introductory rate of $29.95 per month for the first three months, and $55/month after that, when bundled with any other Shaw service. For those who…
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CALGARY – The claims Vonage is making are wrong and misleading, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw said today in a press release responding to the VOIP company’s CRTC application.
This week, as reported here, Vonage announced it has asked the Commission to look into the $10 fee (calling it a VOIP tax) Shaw recommends consumers pay per month in order to guarantee quality of service if and when they are using a third party voice provider for local telephony (other than Shaw’s own digital telephony product).
"Vonage’s news release concerning Shaw’s quality of service enhancement is both wrong and…
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MISSISSAUGA, ON – Internet telephony provider Vonage Canada announced today it has appealed to the CRTC to investigate Shaw Communications’ "thinly veiled VOIP tax to determine if Shaw is unfairly driving up competitor’s prices and forcing Western Canadians to pay more for phone service," says the company release.
Shaw tells its high-speed Internet customers that they should pay an extra $10 charge per month if they use a Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone service provider such as Vonage Canada.
The big western MSO says the fee it meant to ensure that customers of Vonage, for example, using Shaw’s…
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