WATERTOWN, N.Y. – WPBS-TV, the PBS station serving Northern New York and Eastern Ontario, announced today Janet Yale has joined its board of directors.
Most recently, Yale chaired the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review panel which resulted in the report Canada’s Communication Future: Time to Act. A lawyer by training, she served as president and CEO of the Arthritis Society, executive vice president at Telus, and president and CEO of the Canadian Cable Television Association.
“Janet’s true passion is in the not-for-profit sector where she has been recognized as a prominent innovator and leader. She is past chair of the Arthritis…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU — The CRTC has provided some relief to Iristel as it continues to consider a review and vary (R&V) application submitted by the independent telecom service provider regarding the Commission’s recent decision which found Iristel guilty of traffic stimulation to the 867 area code.
In its August 14 decision (which we reported on here), the Commission ordered Iristel to reduce its long-distance interexchange (IX) termination rate for calls to the 867 numbering plan area (NPA) in northern Canada from $0.038 per minute to $0.0098125. The new rate was to apply on an interim basis, and was to become…
Continue Reading
MARKHAM, Ont. — The Canadian Telecom Summit today provided more details about who’s participating in the “5G Eco-system” panel discussion happening November 18 as part of this year’s virtual edition of the annual summit.
With the full title “The 5G Eco-System: Enabling Value and Developing Revenue Streams”, the panel discussion will be moderated by Eric Smith, senior vice-president of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).
Scheduled to take place from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday, November 18, the panel participants include:
Kevin Riley, chief technology officer and executive vice-president of advanced research and development at Ribbon Communications
Milan…
Continue Reading
By Len Katz
THE WORDS IN THAT headline came from a senior executive at a wireless conference almost a decade ago as he commented on the Joint Network and Spectrum Sharing Agreement that saw Bell Canada and Telus carve up the build-out of one national wireless high speed digital network to compete with Rogers. Telus trumpeted the agreement saying it allowed for an accelerated buildout.
It also resulted in one less national infrastructure network in Canada. So did the benefit outweigh the cost?
ISED (then Industry Canada) repeatedly approved the applications to extend the Sharing Agreements during subsequent spectrum auctions Continue Reading
TORONTO — Toronto’s Firstlight Media, a provider of cloud-based OTT infrastructure to streaming service operators, today announced it is adding three executives to its sales and business development team.
Bal O’Neil (above, centre) has joined the company as vice-president of solutions engineering, Eric Goldstein (left) will serve as Firstlight Media’s head of business development, and John Ferrandino (right) is the company’s new head of sales. All three will be responsible for delivering partner and client solutions for video service providers.
O’Neil most recently served as vice-president of solutions delivery for Evergent Canada. Previously, she spent more than a dozen years with…
Continue Reading
Must pay nearly $18 million to production funds
By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Bell Canada “misallocated” millions of dollars of funding for Canadian programming and failed to meet its obligations to community television programming by using much of its required funding for community TV on shows that clearly furthered Bell Media’s commercial interests, the CRTC announced in a lengthy (26,632-word) decision rendered on Thursday.
The performance of Bell’s community television was reviewed as part of its Fibe TV licence renewal, the company’s IPTV network in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, and as a result of the violations, Bell has been directed…
Continue Reading
Rogers was the fastest fixed broadband provider in Canada in Q3, says Ookla
SEATTLE — In its latest Speedtest Global Index measurement of network speeds in Canada, Seattle-based Ookla reports Rogers Communications was the fastest fixed broadband provider among top providers in Canada in the third quarter of 2020.
According to Ookla’s Speedtest Intelligence data from July to September, Rogers achieved a speed score of 151.51 in Q3 2020. (Ookla’s speed score incorporates measurements of each provider’s download and upload speeds to rank network speed performance, with 90% of the final speed score being attributed to download speed.)
The next highest…
Continue Reading
Bell’s Oosterman to lead media group
MONTREAL — BCE announced today Bell group president and vice-chair Wade Oosterman will take over operational leadership of Bell Media in 2021 following the departure of Bell Media’s current president, Randy Lennox, on January 4.
“On behalf of everyone at Bell, I would like to thank Randy (above) for his leadership at Bell Media and his support of a smooth leadership transition in 2021,” said Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada, in a press release. “A renowned executive in Canadian music and media, Randy joined Bell Media in 2015 and has…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – When Canadians were asked to think on a top-of-mind basis of companies which are championing diversity and inclusion for Canadians of varied backgrounds, Walmart, Nike, RBC, Tim Hortons and TD emerged as the top five according to the phase I results of Solutions Research Group’s new Diversity & Inclusion Monitor syndicated study.
Walmart was the top-ranked company mentioned by Canadians in Western Canada, Quebec and Atlantic Canada and was ranked number seven in Ontario, behind TD and Apple. In follow-up interviews, consumers were particularly likely to point out the one reason they believe Walmart is a leader is…
Continue Reading
MORE TV DISTRIBUTORS in Canada are adding CBC/Radio-Canada’s 24-hours news channels, CBC News Network and ICI RDI, to the lineup of channels available to all of their subscribers.
The public broadcaster says it is collaborating with the country’s TV distributors as Canadians face a resurgence of Covid-19. Back in mid-March at the beginning of the pandemic, many of Canada’s TV distributors made the two news channels available to their subscribers.
CBC News Network is now available to all subscribers on Bell TV, Rogers, Cogeco, Eastlink, SaskTel and others, with Telus and Shaw joining next week. In addition, as of tomorrow,…
Continue Reading
