MONTREAL – Interveners told the CRTC Tuesday that just because Bell Canada has decided it will spin off a few TV assets with this latest attempt to purchase Astral Media, that doesn’t make the deal any better for Canadians, or for them.
“This second application raises the very same concerns in the English-language television market,” Rogers SVP regulatory Ken Engelhart told commissioners on Tuesday morning. “The acquisition of Astral’s premium pay television services will threaten diversity and endanger the ability of distributors to deliver programming to Canadians at affordable rates and on reasonable terms on multiple platforms.
So for Rogers, the…
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FREMONTM, CALIF. – Cellphone-Mate, a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of cellular amplifier technology, and Dallas-based wireless communications distributor Hutton Communications have announced that the two companies have joined forces to go after Canadian business and residential customers.
“Cellphone-Mate’s global customers are recognizing the immense value to be gained by augmenting their current wireless connections,” said Hongtao Zhan, founder and CEO of Cellphone-Mate, in a release. “This alliance will broaden our reach across Canada by tapping Hutton’s proven and well-respected sales channel. We look forward to a very long and mutually rewarding relationship with the entire Hutton team.”
Cellphone-Mate manufactures TriFlex T amplifiers,…
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MONTREAL – Telus Health and McGill University have announced a new three-year, million dollar partnership to create a learning environment and conduct research on how best to use technology to improve health and healthcare delivery for Canadians.
“This partnership will contribute to our effectiveness in generating quantifiable results by allowing us to document patient outcomes from our health IT applications and cutting-edge collaborative services,” said Telus Health president Paul Lepage in a release. “It enables us to gain valuable knowledge and further insights on the impacts of ehealth initiatives from both the clinical and business perspectives…
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada and Astral Media executives attempted a bit more of a conciliatory approach in presenting its new, sharper, different, application to the CRTC which seeks permission to bring the two companies together under changed conditions compared to last time; but the questions from the panel of commissioners were equally as tough as the first go-around in September 2012.
(The details of the deal – already approved by the Competition Bureau, can be found here – and the company’s opening presentation unveiled nothing new, as demanded by the CRTC. So, the real story was…
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TORONTO – Andrea Wood has joined Telus as its vice-president of legal services, the company announced this week. She is joining the team lead by Monique Mercier, senior vice-president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary.
Wood brings more than 25 years of legal experience, much of that in the telecommunications and related industries. She was most recently with Wind as the wireless company’s chief legal officer.
www.telus.com
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VANCOUVER – Telus has announced improvements to its Optik mobile app that lets users watch movie trailers before renting, and provides better video quality and more HD titles.
The app allows customers to rent more than 1,500 new release movies and TV shows and then watch them on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Optik customers can rent a movie once and have the choice to watch it on any screen during the rental period. Customers have the flexibility to rent select Movies On Demand from Optik TV at home, watch a portion of the movie and…
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TORONTO – Cisco and Telus have joined together to donate collaborative technology tools to help international charity Free The Children become more mobile and connected with youth around the world.
Cisco’s donation of six of ITS TelePresence, WebEx Telepresence and Jabber Video units allow the organization’s staff to connect face-to-face with colleagues in offices in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, as well as the organization’s offices around the world. Telus, which has been a sponsor of Free The Children since 2006, supplies the network platform for the Telepresence technology.
“Cisco’s TelePresence technology will revolutionize the way…
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GATINEAU – That broadcast distributors would increase the price of basic packages if the CRTC licensed new 9(1)(h) services is a red herring, according the Canadian Media Production Association (CPMA) told commissioners on Tuesday.
“We believe that the impact of 9(1)(h) services on ‘affordability’ is a red herring that threatens to overshadow the achievement of more significant objectives under the Act,” Michael Hennessy, president and CEO of the CMPA, said during his opening remarks.
The association acknowledges that licensing additional services with mandatory carriage orders may trigger basic package rate increases, but it says this isn’t the sole reason broadcast…
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TORONTO – Telus says a vacation phone scam that uses the company’s name to target Ontario residents is fraudulent and is warning its customers to hang up if they receive such a call.
The call features a recorded voice message which thanks the customer for choosing Telus and offers a free vacation for being a good customer. If the person stays on the line they are connected to a real person who asks them for personal information or to send money as a down-payment on vacation fees.
The scam is common, re-surfacing periodically using the…
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VANCOUVER – Telus announced the launch of BBC Kids video on demand (VOD) on its Optik TV service.
“TELUS has been a great partner helping to make BBC Kids available to a growing number of Optik TV customers,” said Rudy Buttignol, president of BBC Kids, in a release. “BBC Kids offers shows you won’t find anywhere else – programs that are fun for kids and trusted by parents.”
BBC Kids, a joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Knowledge Network, features kids programming from preschool favourites to comedy and adventure for teens. Programs include Charlie and…
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