Search Results for: telus

Cable / Telecom News

Telus Health aims to takes the pain out of drug prescriptions

VANCOUVER – Telus Health has acquired electronic-prescription technology ZRx Prescriber from Quebec-based ZoomMed, making it the first Canadian healthcare technology company to offer insurance coverage validation nationally at the moment of prescription. ZRx Prescriber is an intuitive web-based prescriber that allows physicians to use a mobile device to quickly and accurately write and deliver prescriptions for patients while accessing the patient's insurance coverage information directly at the moment of prescription.  The technology will also allow physicians to prescribe within the patient's plan parameters when possible, speeding up the insurance claim and improving the patient's experience during the dispensing process. This agreement,… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Feds move to axe paper bill fees

OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The federal government said that it will force the communication industry to abandon paper bill charges after the country’s biggest companies failed to commit to doing so at Thursday’s CRTC review into the practice. Industry Minister James Moore said Friday that charging extra fees to customers who receive paper copies of their bills, a practice known as pay-to-pay billing, was “unfair”, and promised that the government would introduce legislation to end it in the telecommunications sector.  He did not say when such legislation would be tabled. "More and more Canadians are finding a new charge appearing on their monthly… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Telus offers new cloud-based mobile device management system for business

TORONTO – Telus has launched a new cloud-based mobile device management (MDM) solution to help Canadian businesses keep their mobile devices secure and embrace the growing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend. MDM Made Easy leverages industry-leading technology and services from AirWatch and Vox Mobile to create a turn-key MDM solution that drastically simplifies the support and enhances the security of mobile devices for Canadian businesses, reads the company’s news release. Built to be customized, MDM Made Easy allows businesses to quickly deploy a feature-rich MDM solution without investing in infrastructure. This cloud-based solution eliminates the need for on-premise hardware, while… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Investigates, Radio / Television News

LET’S TALK TV: Canadians demand to be at the heart of a new broadcasting system

GATINEAU – A group of Canadian television viewers and consumer-oriented organizations says that it’s time for the CRTC to change the way it regulates the broadcasting system; this time, by putting Canadians, and not a specific industry, front and centre. “The broadcasting system – and its business and regulation – must move back towards one that serves Canadians,” reads an intervention by the Groups for the Public Interest to the Commission’s Let’s Talk TV Conversation with Canadians. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Consumers’ Association of Canada, Council of Senior Citizens Organizations of British Columbia, National Pensioners Federation, Option consommateurs and Canadian… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Vertical integration strategies could hinge on CRTC’s examination of wireless TV offerings

TORONTO – Bell, Rogers and Videotron have some explaining to do over the way that they charge customers for live and on-demand television programming on mobile applications. According to a Globe and Mail report, the CRTC has asked the three big providers a series of questions about their respective apps, such as how many subscribers the services have, how much data they tend to use, and how exactly the content is delivered. The report raises the issue of net neutrality, noting that the apps allow viewers to use their smartphone or tablet to watch up to 10 hours per month of… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Telus extends wireless service to BC’s Highway 97

PRINCE GEORGE, BC – Telus said Tuesday that it has invested more than $2.5 million to build four new wireless sites bringing service to more than 40 kilometers of Highway 97 just north of Prince George for the first time. The final site in the first series is now live, providing coverage to Highway 97 near Augustine Lake. The other three sites were built over the last six months near Summit Lake Road, Salmon River Road and Salmon Valley, respectively, and the company said that it anticipates that the second series of sites, currently under construction along the same highway,… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Investigates, Radio / Television News

LET’S TALK TV: Rogers and Corus want to overhaul Terms of Trade with producers

GATINEAU – Rogers Communications and Corus Entertainment have told the CRTC that it must reconsider the usefulness of Terms of Trade (ToT) agreement between broadcasters and independent producers in creating independent Canadian programming. On the other hand, the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) argues that in a new broadcast environment with greater pick and pay options ToT will become increasingly important. In their respective interventions to the Commission’s Let’s Talk TV Conversation with Canadians, Rogers and Corus claim that ToT (a deal hard-fought for by the CMPA and others which was developed and demanded over a number of years) is… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Investigates, Radio / Television News

LET’S TALK TV: Not all VI companies think alike: Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Quebecor show Commission similarities, stark differences (Corrected Version)

JUST BECAUSE BELL Canada, Quebecor Media, Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications are all broadcasters, specialty service operators, TV distributors, phone companies and broadband providers doesn’t mean they think alike. They do, however, agree on this generation’s “Death Star”. We’re looking at you, Netflix. In their submissions to the CRTC’s TV Policy Review, the four big vertically integrated behemoths are on board together with certain things, such as maintaining simultaneous substitution (which is actually something virtually every industry submission we’ve read demands be kept), decreasing the amount of Canadian content which must be shown, while spending more money on fewer big… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

TSN’s new national feeds to debut August 25

TORONTO – TSN will flip the switch on its three new national feeds on August 25, opening day of the U.S. Open, and take the opportunity to deliver expanded live coverage of the final tennis Grand Slam of the season. TSN said Monday that its feeds, branded TSN1, TSN2, TSN3, TSN4, and TSN5, will initially be available to customers of Bell Fibe TV and Bell Satellite, Cogeco Cable, Eastlink, FibreOp TV (Bell Aliant), MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct, Source Cable, and Telus Optik TV.    The additional feeds will allow the sports network to show more live game coverage,… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Entwistle reminds feds that facilities-based competition remains the best way to go; says Telus could stop fibre builds

VANCOUVER – For a guy who has supposedly moved to the boardroom from the CEO’s chair, Darren Entwistle still did a lot of talking during the Telus Q2 conference call with financial analysts. The Telus executive chairman primarily spoke to a pair of important regulatory files which have the potential to dent the big wireless and wireline carrier’s performance (along with Rogers and Bell, for that matter): wholesale wireless roaming rates, and wholesale wireline broadband access. Entwistle hammered home his point that facilities-based competition (where operators are required or incented to build… Continue Reading