TORONTO – Canada's wireless tower owners are putting too much pressure on tower consulting and construction companies to cut their costs, the inaugural conference of a new industry safety association was told today.
Tom Vardy, president of Fredericton-based Varcon Inc., a tower consulting engineering firm, complained Monday that tower owners are "bashing" suppliers so much he’s concerned worker safety will be affected. "Pressure for unrealistic service provider pricing is getting ridiculous," he said. "That's what got the United States (communications tower industry) in the (safety) hole they were in 10-15 years ago. As a Canadian group…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications is offering Internet of Things (IoT) 'as a service' in an effort to help Canadian businesses simplify the process of managing IoT solutions.
In partnership with Canadian-based provider blueRover, the first two solutions being offered as a service include Farm & Food Monitoring and Level Monitoring. Additional services include End-to-End Incident Management plus Cold Chain Management and Food Safety Monitoring for restaurants and food kitchens.
(Ed note: while Rogers’ news release claims that it is the first Canadian carrier to offer IoT on an as a service basis, that title actually belongs to Telus which Continue Reading
Canadians are receiving the broadband speeds they're paying for
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The majority of broadband Internet services in Canada are as fast or faster than their advertised download and upload speeds, says a CRTC report on Internet services.
The preliminary report, released Thursday, found that most services from the country's major Internet service providers delivered between 109% and 122% of the advertised download speed, and that performance was largely consistent across all geographic regions of Canada in a mix of urban and rural settings.
Services using fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technologies delivered 119% of advertised download speed on average, while cable/hybrid-fibre co-axial (HFC) delivered 103%,…
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TORONTO – Cord-cutters or -nevers missing their live sports now have the option to buy Sportsnet Now, a direct-to-consumer service, without a pay-television subscription.
Launching nationally on Friday, the live streaming service (including the regular TV ad load) of the six Sportsnet linear channels promises select NHL, MLB, NBA, soccer and tennis events, as well as original programming like Tim & Sid and Sportsnet Central. Sportsnet Now will be available on tablet, mobile and online for a monthly subscription of $24.99 with no contract and a 7-day trial period. It remains included for existing Sportsnet TV distributors such as Shaw, Telus, Bell,…
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TV complaints on the rise
OTTAWA – Canadians had more complaints about their television services than about their telecom and Internet services combined, says the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS).
In its mid-year report released Wednesday, CCTS said it accepted 4,562 complaints between August 1, 2015 and January 31, 2016, down slightly from the 5,468 complaints received in the same period a year earlier. While the number of telecom complaints remained steady, CCTS said that it recorded over 4,650 consumer issues related to television services in the first six months of 2015-16, as compared to 7,294 in all of…
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OTTAWA – Recycle My Cell, Canada's recycling program for mobile devices and accessories, has announced the winners of the sixth annual Recycle My Cell Student Challenge.
Held each year in conjunction with Waste Reduction Week in Canada, the Challenge sees students from kindergarten to post-secondary collecting as many old wireless devices as possible, including cell phones, smartphones, pagers, accessories and cell phone batteries.
Students from 75 schools across the country participated in the 2015 edition of the Challenge, which was held from October 19 to November 18. In total,…
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GATINEAU – More than five years after the CRTC issued its deferral accounts decision, some 287 rural and remote communities in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec now have access to broadband Internet services.
Under a plan approved by the Commission in 2010, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream and Telus spent $422 million on broadband expansion to rural and remote communities using technologies such as digital subscriber line, fixed wireless and high-speed packet access. Bell connected 112 communities and MTS connected 16 in 2014. Telus finalized its expansion to 159 communities in December 2015.
“We are pleased that three of Canada’s…
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TORONTO – With less than two weeks until its debut, Viceland unveiled more of its millennial-focused programming and confirmed that it will be available on a three month free preview at launch.
Beginning Monday, February 29 at 5:00 AM ET/PT (check local listings), viewers wake up in Viceland with the one-hour special Bar Talk, hosted by Vice Canada’s head of content Patrick McGuire from the new Toronto studio. Following that is the 13-hour special 646-851-0347 Leave A Message.
With hosts that include Canadians Ellen Page (Gaycation), Matty Matheson (Dead Set on Life), and renowned actor Michael K. Williams (Black Market with Michael…
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THE ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL DATA PRIVACY Day (which was January 28) is often seen as a day when individuals are reminded ways they should stay safe online. However, Canadian corporate privacy and security officers are likely also reflecting today on a number of recent court and regulatory moves that are affecting their responsibilities.
These include:
An Ontario judge last month expanding the scope of privacy protection under the common law by allowing a person to sue another for putting an explicit video of them on the Internet, an action one lawyer called "revenge porn”
Then, another Ontario judge Continue Reading
Hearing starts Monday
TORONTO — CRTC commissioners have a lot of reading ahead of them, judging by the hundreds of submissions already made to the Commission’s review of basic telecommunications services, from industry players, consumer organizations, end-user businesses, and local and provincial governments. Then there are the thousands of individual consumers who have submitted questionnaires related to their usage of telecom services.
(Ed note: This is a re-post of a story we ran in February previewing the 14-day hearing that begins Monday. Cartt.ca will have daily coverage of the hearing, which will be available to hear…
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