Search Results for: telus

Cable / Telecom News

Telus, Huawei to create 5G “Living Lab” in downtown Vancouver

SHENZHEN, CHINA – Huawei and Telus are teaming up to establish a 5G "Living Lab" in Vancouver. Announced Friday from Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen, in conjunction with BC premier Christy Clark’s visit, the new project will test approaches to deliver a next-generation converged fibre-wireless network in downtown Vancouver.  To support this "Living Lab", Huawei pledged to make “a significant investment” to design, test and deploy new technologies leading towards the development of next-generation 5G based telecommunications networks.  Telus’ recent commitment to invest $1 billion to expand its fibre optic network in Vancouver will ultimately provide the backbone to support highly… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Telus to eliminate 1,500 jobs to help lower expenses

VANCOUVER – Telus is cutting some 1,500 jobs in an effort to curb costs, amidst increases in third quarter revenues and profits. The company said Thursday that it is increasing “efficiency initiatives” by an additional $125 million next quarter, which will include eliminating approximately 1,500 full-time positions, many of which are voluntary departures and early retirements. “These are very difficult decisions to make but a necessary element of aligning our organization with the growth, customer service and capital allocation activities we are implementing", president and CEO Darren Entwistle said in a statement. For the third quarter ended September 30, 2015, Telus’ consolidated operating… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CCTS Hearing day three: Shaw and Quebecor agree on mandatory participation; Teksavvy needs deeper help

GATINEAU – The third day of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunication Services (CCTS) mandate review saw telecom providers in the West and East agree on a few changes to the complaints body. Quebecor Media and Shaw Communications noted in their respective testimony to the CRTC on Thursday they believe it’s natural for the CCTS to conduct some code interpretation. They also believe that participation in the complaints body should be mandatory. Peggy Tabet, senior director of regulatory affairs for telecommunications at Quebecor, noted under questioning that it’s about treating all players equally. In a world where the company is subjected… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Three young chefs inspired by alphabet on new Gusto TV series

OTTAWA – Gusto TV is readying a new original series aimed at millennials that it says takes a fresh approach to the food challenge show genre. A Is for Apple, set to premiere November 16 at 8:00 and 8:30 PM ET/5:00 and 5:30 pm PT, features three young chefs who base their recipes on letters of the alphabet.  Each episode begins with one of the chefs randomly choosing a letter of the alphabet and then shopping for two ingredients that start with that letter, including intriguing combinations as apples and anchovies, bananas and bacon, and vanilla and vinegar.  They then create… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CCTS Hearing day one: Participation should be mandatory, trigger-based system needs to be changed

GATINEAU – The mandate review for the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunication Services (CCTS) kicked off on Tuesday with the body arguing that voluntary participation would make it much more difficult to resolve complaints – and that some consumers could find themselves on the short end of the complaints process. In addition, the trigger-based system of participation is unruly and hasn’t proven effective in forcing telecom service providers (TSPs) to join the CCTS. Josée Thibault, assistant CCTS commissioner, noted “there is a real risk that many providers would withdraw from CCTS, creating a situation in which some customers are entitled to… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Telus awards $3.2M to help Western Canadian content creators tell regional stories

VANCOUVER – Telus, through its Optik Local community programming, is awarding more than $3.2 million in funding to support some 60 new local content projects in Western Canada this year. Optik Local supports compelling, original storytelling in British Columbia and Alberta by providing funding and training to filmmakers, as well as a platform to share their content with new audiences. Content is distributed for free on Telus Optik On Demand as well as online. "Optik Local is unique in the Canadian content funding space. It's an innovative model that enables diverse voices to be heard and local stories to be told,"… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Hollywood Suite movie channels relaunch

TORONTO – Hollywood Suite’s four HD movie channels are officially now known as Hollywood Suite 70s Movies, Hollywood Suite 80s Movies, Hollywood Suite 90s Movies and Hollywood Suite 2000s Movies, after being relaunched on Monday. The independent broadcaster announced in September that the rebrand would include a streamlined look that brings a single Hollywood Suite identity to the four on-air HD channels, On Demand, the Hollywood Suite Go app, and its web and social media properties. Subscribers can still find the big pre-1970 films with programming blocks dedicated to the essential classics from the golden age of Hollywood.  All movies will remain uncut… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

UPDATED: Why adding voice to LTE isn’t easy

TORONTO – Adding packet-switched voice calling to LTE networks (VoLTE) is in some ways the holy grail of true 4G wireless. By enabling an all-IP based communications system, not only will it improve the quality of voice calls compared to legacy networks, VoLTE will ultimately also make network stacks simpler. But on Wednesday a consultant warned Canadian carriers about to implement VoLTE they will need to work closely with older 2G and 3G networks – which will have to handle voice calls when users drift out of LTE coverage – to get the benefits of the new technology. “The message here is… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CRTC orders wholesale wireless rates to be made public

OTTAWA – Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus must disclose their interim wholesale wireless rates within the next week after the CRTC found in favour of a disclosure of information request from Vaxination Informatique. Vaxination filed a request for disclosure of all the confidential information in the wholesale wireless roaming interim tariffs issued on June 4, 2015 by the national wireless carriers, part of the Commission’s decision on wholesale mobile wireless services issued last May. In a letter to the big three wireless carriers dated October 27, the CRTC said that it rejected submissions opposing the request, saying that the disclosure is… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

COMMENTARY: Why Trudeau should revive the Ministry of Communications

PEOPLE ARE ALREADY CALLING Justin Trudeau our first “selfie” Prime Minister. Images of him on the campaign trail – and the day after the election – mugging with various Canadians who have one arm outstretched and the other around our PM-to-be number in the hundreds of thousands. He’ll apparently even click it for you, if you like. Of course, those snapshots are then uploaded to the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other sharing platform to display to followers around the country and the world. Just Google “Justin Trudeau selfie”. Invariably, those images ride… Continue Reading