TORONTO – The cloud, mobile, the Internet of Things and security will be among six key business technology trends for Canada in 2015, according to a series of reports by International Data Corporation (IDC), commissioned by Telus.
“In 2015, we are going to see a fundamental shift in how technology is embraced by Canadian businesses”, said Peter Green, SVP and president of Telus business solutions, in the news release. “Rather than focusing on hardware or software, technology is becoming entrenched as a critical component of every business decision. As cloud, mobile, analytics and Internet of Things technologies converge, Canadian…
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En 2007-2008, ils étaient nombreux dans l’industrie canadienne de la télévision à se demander qui était ce drôle de type qui achetait toutes les marques musicales.
À l’époque, tout le monde croyait que la musique était une industrie en déclin, complètement dépassée par la révolution numérique — un domaine dont les gens d’affaires sérieux devaient s’éloigner, et non pas investir. Ce n’était certainement pas un secteur où l’on planifiait construire une nouvelle entreprise d’envergure mondiale. Il ne manquait pas de sceptiques lorsqu’est arrivé sur la scène de la télévision canadienne Eric Boyko, être au verbe rapide et entrepreneur à l’énergie…
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BACK IN 2007-08 THERE were no shortage of people in the Canadian TV industry who’d whisper, “who’s the crazy guy buying up all the music brands?”
The prevailing wisdom then said music was a shrinking, sinking business, utterly upended by the digital revolution and one to be fled by serious businesspeople, not embraced. It was certainly not something upon which to build a brand new global enterprise. Oh, there were plenty of naysayers when Eric Boyko (pictured in his Montreal office), a speed talking ball of frenetic, entrepreneurial energy, entered the Canadian TV scene. (Pour la version française, s'il vous…
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OTTAWA – There are rules which say pre-paid retail gift cards and pre-paid credit cards can not expire, but pre-paid phone cards are exempt from that legislation – and that’s a “scandalous” oversight, a consumer group has told the federal government.
Currently, prepaid wireless phone cards are exempt from both provincial and federal legislation which ban expiry dates on retailer gift cards and prepaid credit cards. However, one consumer advocacy group has been working to see that changed and is now demanding Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet intervene in the matter.
“Prepaid wireless, pay-per-use accounts should not be exempt from legislation…
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GATINEAU – “Contrary to the assertions of some parties, there is simply no problem to solve when it comes to Canadian broadband.” Those comments from Ted Woodhead, senior VP of federal government and regulatory affairs at Telus Communications, during the company’s reply on Wednesday pretty much sum up the views of all the major incumbent ISPs when it comes to wholesale broadband access regulations which the CRTC has under review.
The big players have argued throughout the hearing that competition is alive and well in retail Internet access markets between the cable and telephone companies, and any decision that grants…
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TORONTO – Launching next Thursday for customers of Bell, Telus, Bell Aliant and EastLink is the traditional TV industry’s latest salvo in the battle to retain customers by providing more content to television subscribers on more devices at any time.
This morning at the Bell TIFF Lightbox, the company officially revealed CraveTV, a $4-a-month service which will give subscribers to a traditional TV package access to more than 10,000 hours of content on their handsets, tablets, PCs and their regular set top boxes. It will also be available soon on other platforms such as AppleTV, Chromecast and Xbox.
Costing…
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GATINEAU – Wholesale access rates that are too low, as Rogers Communications contends they are now, will not lead to further competitor investment in networks, the company said on Tuesday to the CRTC. Rather, it will continue to encourage independent ISPs to lease capacity from the incumbents in perpetuity.
Rogers said its wholesale business – customers who pay 45% less than retail consumers – has grown from essentially zero to nearly 15% of customers in the last four years. If the current growth trajectory continues, it will top 30%. Company executives appeared before the Commission as part of its look…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile has added a new, unnamed domestic partner network in a move that has allowed it to expand its coverage area by 14% nationwide.
The new wireless entrant said Tuesday that it has added 177,000 square kilometers of coverage outside of the Wind Unlimited zone, meaning it now covers 1.2 million square kilometers across Canada and reaches 97% of the population. According to sources, that new partner is Telus.
“Our data shows that Canadians living in our Unlimited coverage areas do tend to travel outside of their home zone for work or pleasure,” said chief marketing officer, Mirko Rugarli,…
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MONTREAL – Bell, Rogers, Telus and Videotron flipped the switch on the first phase of the new $50 million mobile network for the Montreal metro.
The green line segment, which runs through the downtown area between the Guy-Concordia and Saint-Laurent stations, is now equipped with mobile technology including 3G, 4G and 4G LTE, allowing customers of all four wireless providers to browse the Internet, watch videos, listen to streamed music, make and receive calls from within the metro cars and throughout the tunnels and stations.
The project, first announced in September 2013, will take five to seven years to fully…
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GATINEAU – The current wholesale broadband access regime has made it very difficult for new IPTV providers to compete against incumbents, argued independent ISP/IPTV provider VMedia in appearance before the CRTC’s Fibre Hearing on Friday.
Company representatives said that costing under capacity-based billing (CBB) doesn’t make sense for them and the resulting inconsistent rates affect its ability to offer a triple-play bundle of voice, Internet and TV at prices that are competitive with the incumbents.
In its opening remarks, VMedia provided details about rates it would be required to pay to access facilities from an incumbent to replicate current incumbent IPTV…
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