TORONTO – Saying it makes the company the fastest wireless carrier in Canada, Rogers Wireless today launched high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) technology – its next generation voice and data network.
Available for now throughout Ontario’s "Golden Horseshoe", the debut of HSDPA places the company among the first operators in the world to deploy this latest evolution of GSM, the dominant global standard for mobile wireless communications with over two billion users worldwide, says the company.
HSDPA is a 3.5G protocol for mobile data transmission that, says the release, "significantly improves data transfer rates, enabling network users to download…
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WHILE THE SENIOR REGULATORY EXECUTIVES of all the nation’s telcos, cablecos and other parties met with federal MPs Thursday in Ottawa to plead their cases on telecom regulation, across the river in Gatineau, the CRTC was receiving its newest application for local forbearance – in Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Saying it has already passed the threshold of local line customer losses (25%) in the Alberta oil-boom-town about 450 kms north of Edmonton – thanks to rigorous competition from Shaw Cable – Telus wants the CRTC to deregulate the market, as outlined in its April 2006 local forbearance decision.
Shaw…
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OSHAWA – The 50,000th vehicle with factory-installed XM Satellite Radio was delivered this week.
“Delivering 50,000 vehicles with factory-installed XM Satellite Radio in less than a year has exceeded our expectations,” says Marc Comeau, vice-president, sales, service and marketing, GM Canada, in a press release. “Customers have embraced satellite radio and we continue to see an increased demand for the service. In fact, along with our 50,000th delivery, we have an additional 50,000 customer orders for vehicles with XM Satellite Radio in our production schedule.”
GM Canada factory-installs XM Satellite Radio in more than 50 models and GM Canada…
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OTTAWA – No longer will DTH customers with a system at their home and their cottage be able to pay just a single bill.
The CRTC calls it account stacking, while others call it account splitting. Specialty service owners in Canada called it a way to siphon off revenue and want to be paid a wholesale fee for each address. Cable companies called it an unfair advantage. The DTH companies called it consumer-friendly since, because if people are watching TV at the cottage, they aren’t watching at home, too, and should be treated as a single account.
As noted…
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TORONTO – The owners of Bridges TV took their fight for carriage on Rogers Cable to the media late on Wednesday.
An incendiary press release from the English-language Muslim specialty service obviously meant as an unvarnished public attempt to bully the cable company into capitulation, says that by not letting Bridges TV into its channel lineup Rogers is ignoring and discriminating against the Muslim community, is censoring Islam and disrupting dialog between the Muslim community and all Canadians.
By not adding American-owned Bridges TV, Rogers may even be at fault for the fact Muslims in Canada "continue to bear…
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WHEN NBTEL FIRST CAME to market in 1998 with a digital TV product serving customers in Moncton and Saint John, N.B., the cable industry laughed.
Sure, it was all-digital television, but each TV needed its own set top box, channel-changing latency was a problem and due to the limitations of the early ADSL technology it used, all the TVs in the house had to be tuned to the same channel. Fine for homes without a second TV, but not so much for most folks.
At the time, NBTel (which is now Aliant) was the North American leader on the…
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REGINA – On Friday, the Access Communications Children’s Fund and the WHL team the Regina Pats will launch the new “Brady Brady, Make Reading a Fun Goal” literacy program.
The goal of the program is to encourage young students to read. The program is supported by the donation of complete sets of the new Brady Brady children’s books to all elementary schools in communities served by Access Communications across Saskatchewan. The Regina Pats players will support the program by reading the books to students during school visits in Regina. The program is being launched in Regina first, with other…
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MONTREAL – After already having launched on Rogers Cable, Shaw Cable and Bell ExpressVu PPV, Cogeco Cable has also added Survivor: Cook Islands to its on demand lineup.
Starting with tonight’s episode (October 12), Cogeco digital cable customers will be able to see the show on VOD the day after it airs by purchasing it, commercial-free, for 99-cents.
Rogers, Shaw and ExpressVu, however, are offering the show on demand immediately after it airs on Global Television while Global itself is offering the episodes the next day for free on the web.
The latest and the prior three…
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TORONTO – Survivor: Cook Islands fans have nothing to complain about if they miss their Thursday at 8 p.m. date.
Global Television today announced the show will be made available online at www.globaltv.com, joining prime time game show Deal or No Deal as the latest U.S. primetime series to be added to the network’s online programming library. Canadian original offerings on the site include: Global National with Kevin Newman, Global Currents, Falcon Beach and The Jane Show.
"The launch of the globaltv.com premium video player is a successful continuation in the network’s broadband video rollout – the free,…
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TORONTO – Last week the Ontario Association of Broadcasters presented its community service awards to several of the province’s broadcasters.
This year the OAB presented the Community Service Award for Radio – Small Market to Standard Radio St. Catharines/Niagara (CKTB/HTZ-FM/EZROCK) while honorable mention went to Durham Radio, CKDO AM/FM, Oshawa.
The Radio – Large Market Award was presented to CHUM Limited, KOOL-FM, Waterloo and honorable mention went to Rogers Media, CHFI-FM, Toronto.
The OAB Community Service Award winner for Television – Small Market was presented to CHUM Limited’s A-Channel, London. The Award for Television – Large Market went to…
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