MONTREAL – Videotron has unveiled the name of its new IPTV platform based on Comcast’s Xfinity X1 platform, à la Rogers and Shaw.
Speaking at the Canadian Club of Montreal on Monday, outgoing Videotron president and CEO Manon Brouillette said that the platform will be called Helix and will hit the market in 2019.
Helix will deliver smarter and more powerful Wi-Fi, an enhanced TV experience thanks to IP technology and seamless integration of Web content platforms, as well as home automation services, she added.
"Helix is revolutionary. It is a fast-changing, adaptive ecosystem that is ready to compete with the international…
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The TV tax battle
By Phil Lind with Robert Brehl
FEW THINGS GET ME SEETHING like the Canadian television networks’ attempted fee-for-carriage cash grab, the so-called “TV tax.” After everything cable did to increase their TV licences’ value over the years, in 2006 the broadcasters ignited a six-year battle to get us to pay them for carrying their signals. It went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and they came very close to winning.
Just writing this raises my hackles. Ken Engelhart and Jan Innes would joke that fee-for-carriage was my “Wullerton.” I had no idea what they meant…
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Cable technologists embrace DAA as a complement to DOCSIS 3.1, fibre deep and other technologies
ATLANTA – Believing their industry's hybrid fibre-coax (HFC) networks have plenty of life left in them, cablecos are pushing forward with distributed access architectures (DAA) designed to enable them to boost capacity for gigabit and other advanced services.
Speaking here at the annual SCTE Cable-Tec Expo show last week, top cable technologists from North America and Europe said they are turning to on DAA and new versions of the industry's DOCSIS broadband specs to meet the bandwidth demand with their existing networks. Rather than junk their…
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GATINEAU – With the large Canadian telecom players reading the writing on the wall (where it appears the Commission is seriously considering some sort of new code of conduct for telecom sales practices) a few of the larger carriers last week set out some ideas for commissioners to consider while they deliberate.
Each company last week essentially told the CRTC during its hearing into telecom sales practices the same thing: “There’s no problem with us when it comes to selling wired or wireless products and services to Canadians.” If there is, added most of the intervenors, the problem stems mainly…
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GATINEAU – Back in August, when the CRTC and researcher Ipsos launched a survey on what Canadians think of the sales practices of Canadian telecom companies, much private (and some public) hue and cry arose from the carriers across the country.
The tight timeline for Ipsos to finish the survey and the weak overall structure and wording of the questions could only lead to negative answers, they said. They were right. The results came back substantially negative, but does that mean they have a point? Does the survey’s supposedly skewed queries mean the results should be tossed out?
Consumers and consumer…
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CALGARY – A surge of new Freedom Mobile customers helped to buoy fourth quarter revenues at Shaw Communications, the company said Thursday.
For the quarter ended August 31, 2018, Shaw said that it added approximately 85,000 net wireless revenue generating units (RGUs), which were substantially all postpaid customers, more than double its 41,000 net additions in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017.
“Fiscal 2018 was an exciting year for our Wireless business”, said CEO Brad Shaw, in a statement. “In a short amount of time, we have created a stronger, high quality network and are delivering an improved customer experience. Our…
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TORONTO – SOCAN exec Michael McCarty has been tapped as the 2019 inductee to the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame.
McCarty will be honoured at the Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Awards gala dinner on May 9, 2019 at Rebel Entertainment Complex in Toronto.
As chief membership & business development officer at SOCAN, McCarty is responsible for leading a department of 40 people across Toronto, Montreal Vancouver, Los Angeles and Nashville engaged in building a roster of 150,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers that includes Canadian music creators like Drake, Alesia Cara, The Weeknd, Shawn Mendez, Frank Dukes, Mudah Beats, Keith Power, Andrew…
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COO role won’t be filled
TORONTO – Barb Williams, executive vice-president and Chief Operating Officer of Corus Entertainment, will be leaving the company on October 31st, the broadcaster announced early Wednesday.
Williams joined Corus as part of its acquisition of Shaw Media on April 1, 2016 and has “played a key role in the successful integration of the two companies and creating a compelling vision for the future”, reads the announcement.
As a result of the “strong and highly experienced leadership team” that she developed and leaves behind, Corus added that it will not replace the COO role.
"Barb's support and dedication has been…
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CALGARY – Freedom Mobile has brought its Extended Range LTE rollout to Ontario, announcing Tuesday that the service is now available in Hamilton and some areas of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
The Shaw-owned carrier says that customers with compatible devices in these areas will now have better LTE coverage, including stronger indoor reception.
According to Freedom Mobile’s website, Extended Range LTE is available in select areas of downtown Toronto, as well as Mississauga, Brampton, Pickering, and Milton. Updates on the rest of the GTA are promised “soon”.
Extended Range LTE launched first in Calgary earlier this month before rolling out…
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Wireless service launches in 19th wireless market in Nunavut
OTTAWA – SSi Micro has won Startup Canada’s National High-Growth Entrepreneurship Award in recognition of the launch of its new SSi Mobile cell phone service in Nunavut.
The Startup Canada Awards celebrate and distinguish outstanding achievement in advancing Canadian entrepreneurship.
In May, SSi Micro won the Startup Canada regional award for the North in the same “high-growth” category, and as such competed against other regional winners across the country. The award was one of sixteen categories honoured at the grand finale awards gala at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa on October…
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