TORONTO – Telus and Rogers Communications may disagree on many things. But they both strongly favor a national consumer protection code for the telecom industry.
Echoing the call by Rogers communications divisional president Rob Bruce on Monday, Robert McFarlane, executive vice president and CFO of Telus, urged the federal government to adopt a national regulatory standard for protecting mobile phone customers. In Tuesday’s opening keynote at the Canadian Telecom Summit here, McFarlane argued that the country needs a single national code rather than “a patchwork of provincial rules” covering wireless contracts and services.
“It has been 20…
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TORONTO – Machine to machine communications, the mobile wallet and mobile video (mmmm…) are the three most exciting opportunities on the immediate horizon for the Canadian wireless industry, but only if we get a few things done first, Rogers' communications division president Rob Bruce told the Canadian Telecom Summit this morning.
Bruce explained in his opening keynote how machine to machine (M2M) technology is transforming health care, security, government and energy, among other things. He predicted the Canadian M2M market would be providing $400 million in network revenue by 2015.
The mobile wallet, on the other hand, will alter the way…
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TORONTO — With more and more companies of all stripes shifting their data workloads to the Internet, the outlook for the cloud is sunnier than ever these days. Several key obstacles remain, however, before cloud-based services prevail in all sectors of the economy.
That was the consensus of a breakout session on “Performance Cloud” at the Canadian Telecom Summit here on Monday morning. Three of the four panelists exhorted telecom carriers, cable operators, wireless providers and other telecom service providers to start offering cloud-based services to commercial customers now, if they aren’t doing so already. But they also warned of…
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MONTREAL – Telus will invest $840 million in Quebec over the next three years to expand and enhance its wireless and wireline networks.
The telecom company said Monday that the bulk of the investment will be put towards expanding its 4G LTE wireless network in the Montreal and Quebec City regions, and potentially into rural areas of the province depending on the outcome of the pending spectrum auction.
Telus also said that it will enhance its wireless and wireline networks for business customers, create 75 new wireless sites across the province, and extend the reach of its Optik TV and Internet services. In…
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TORONTO – Sony Pictures Television Networks announced today that Canadian broadcaster Hollywood Suite will be the exclusive home of Sony Movie Channel and AXN Movies in Canada.
The two channels will launch September 4, 2012 as part of Hollywood Suite’s four HD movie channels, two of which will be rebranded. Hollywood Festival will re-launch as Sony Movie Channel and Hollywood Storm will re-launch as AXN Movies.
“Sony Movie Channel is Sony Pictures Television’s movie network created specifically for the Hollywood movie fan, with access to Sony Pictures’ vast feature film library, while AXN Movies delivers high octane, edge-of-your-seat movies,” reads the…
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OTTAWA – The dispute between Bell Media and a group of independent distributors known as the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG) will go to final arbitration on June 29, the CRTC said Thursday.
As Cartt.ca has reported, Cogeco Cable, Telus, EastLink, MTS and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance have balked at the terms of carriage offered to them by Bell Media for its 30-some specialty channels. Alleging undue preference against Bell, the CIDG object to packaging, penetration, and other terms offered to them by Bell Media. Bell says that its wholesale costing model, a penetration based rate card that it says…
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OTTAWA – Industry veteran Michael Hennessy was named as the new president and CEO of the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) on Thursday.
Hennessy (pictured) replaces Norm Bolen who announced in February that he would step down from the role that he has held for the past three years.
Most recently the SVP of regulatory and government affairs at Telus, Hennessy has served as president and CEO of the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association (CCTA) and was also a member of the board and executive committee of the Canadian Television Fund. He is currently a member of the board and…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will continue in its search for a “sustainable solution” to meet the telecommunications needs of Canadians with hearing and speech disabilities.
While text relay services meet the needs of the vast majority of people with such disabilities, those who use a sign language as their first or primary language have submitted that a sign-language service known as video relay would better meet their needs.
After receiving reports from both Telus and Bell Canada on their respective video relay service initiatives, the Commission said Friday that it requires further study in order to better understand the different projections regarding use…
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RICHARD STURSBERG CAN be a polarizing figure. He knows he rubs some people the wrong way (and I think he kinda likes being the thorn in some sides).
You can read that personality throughout his recent book, Tower of Babble: Sins, Secrets and Successes Inside the CBC. He admits as much on many pages, calling himself “arrogant”, “insouciant” and “insubordinate” and reading through some of what he describes about his time at the Corp., it’s hard not to disagree with his self-assessment.
Stursberg was actually my first interview when I started covering the electronic media industry in…
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OTTAWA – Lower wireless infrastructure investments could be the result of Industry Canada’s proposals to adopt indefinite roaming and eliminating the difference between in-territory and out-of-territory roaming, warn some mobile carriers.
The cautionary notes come from Bell Canada, SaskTel and Telus Corp. in comments to the department’s consultation on changes to mandated roaming and tower site sharing. They urge Industry Canada to think hard before making these changes because they could have the unintended consequence of decreasing overall wireless network investment in both urban and rural areas across the country.
SaskTel is particularly concerned that if the…
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