GATINEAU – CRTC commisioner Christopher MacDonald’s persistent questioning on day one of the hearing into license renewals for several BDUs roughly translated to: “What’s taking so long with the set top box viewership data?”
Quebecor, Rogers, Shaw and Eastlink, all members of the Set Top box working group (check), each had very similar answers to MacDonald’s line of questions. Essentially the answers boiled down to: “What we’re doing is hard, pioneering, and with an uncertain business model, so yes, it’s a slow process.”
The group first met more than two years ago.
During the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV process,…
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OTTAWA – Bell Canada and Rogers Communications showed off some different philosophies when it came to the federal government’s NAFTA negotiations when they appeared recently in front of a recent meeting of the Standing Committee on International Trade.
Rogers Cable vice-president, regulatory, Pam Dinsmore said in her opening remarks on September 20th that her company is concerned the trade talks will wander too far from its prior mandate and into copyright, which includes such issues as retransmitting U.S. over-the-air TV signals, Canada’s notice-and-notice regime for pirated online content, and our Copyright Modernization Act’s provisions for personal use and its…
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OTTAWA – Telus has won a seven-year, $176 million contract from the federal government to upgrade its communications services to include Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone, instant messaging, and desktop videoconferencing.
Thursday’s announcement by Shared Services Canada (SSC) says the Feds will replace over 80,000 legacy landlines with VoIP in a move that will help shave the costs of supporting legacy infrastructure and improve reliability. SSC added that it already has more than 100,000 VoIP lines in use.
“Upgrading our communication services will equip employees with the modern tools they need to enhance productivity to deliver the programs and services…
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CALGARY – Telus has restored service to customers in southeastern Alberta after power outages caused by a winter storm disrupted some wireless and home services in the region.
The telco said late Tuesday that its crews managed to resolve the various network issues once power was restored and road access to its infrastructure were cleared and safe.
www.telus.com
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VANCOUVER – Telus customers now have access to YouTube’s HD and 4K videos on their home’s biggest screen after the app was added to Optik TV 4K set-top boxes.
Telus said Monday that customers may easily access YouTube via channel 322 or through the Apps Launchpad on multiple televisions in the home. Key features include playback of content in 4K, predictive search, ability to sign-in via smartphone to access YouTube subscriptions and playlists and smartphone casting capabilities.
“The way Canadians consume content is changing”, said Telus’ VP of products, services, and content Blair Miller, in the news release. “Between traditional television, on…
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MONTREAL – After getting into wireless last year with the purchase of Wind (now Freedom) Mobile, many expect Shaw to soon start offering wireline/wireless bundles in the west just as Telus, its biggest competitor, already offers.
But the telco isn’t worried, Stephen Lewis, Telus’ senior vice-president and treasurer, told a CIBC investor conference on Wednesday. “We’ve seen this coming for a number of quarters and we are very confident in the preparation we’ve done for when they do bring the Shaw wireless brand to market,” he said.
He cited the “robustness” of Telus’ Internet and OptikTV offering and its continuing installation of…
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VANCOUVER – Telus hit wireless speeds of nearly 1 Gbps in its downtown Vancouver 5G Living Lab last week, the company announced Wednesday.
Telus said that it successfully completed the first test of Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) on indoor and outdoor live networks in Canada, delivering download speeds of 970 Mbps indoors and 966 Mbps outdoors using 80 MHz of aggregated spectrum in a live, dynamic production network.
LAA is one of the key LTE Advanced Pro technologies that will enhance the Telus network as it continues to evolve toward next-generation 5G speeds. The technology works by combining licensed wireless spectrum…
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MTS integration proceeding well, no 600 MHz set asides required
TORONTO – Bell Canada Enterprises CEO George Cope, like any wireless executive in Canada these days, is feeling pretty good.
All companies are posting strong recent subscriber additions and see growth continuing. Speaking to the BMO Capital Markets Media and Telecom Conference in Toronto on Tuesday, Cope pointed to the fact Canada has grown by 350,000 immigrants – and the phones and plans they buy – during the past 12 months or so as a leading reason why the business is so buoyant.
Add all those new Canadians to the growth of…
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Plus, spectrum set asides are a bad idea
TORONTO – Customer service at Rogers had better improve because on Tuesday, CEO Joe Natale put a target in front of himself and his company at which to aim.
While speaking at the BMO Capital Markets Media and Telecom Conference, Natale revealed how removing customer service friction points which he has noted during his five months at Rogers makes him believe “we can get anywhere from 100 to 200 basis points of margin improvement in the next 12 to 18 months,” by tackling various issues, he said.
“To date Rogers has done a good…
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TORONTO – Family Channel has kicked off its 15th annual Bullying Awareness Week campaign with the message to Stand UP! when bullying happens.
Family Channel is also taking the message of bullying prevention on the road, bringing Stand UP! rallies to selected schools across Canada. Hosted by The Next Step’s Briar Nolet (Richelle) and Myles Erlick (Noah), each rally will feature a screening of bullying-themed content from Backstage, an interactive discussion led by a PREVNet representative and a special dance performance. Kids can enter to win by visiting Family.ca and explaining how their school stands up to bullying. The…
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