WATERLOO, NEW YORK – RIM, newly renamed as BlackBerry, today unveiled their long-awaited BB10 smartphones and demonstrated the completely overhauled user interface with one-finger gesture controls and new business-friendly features at launch events across the world.
BlackBerry will offer two new smartphones running on its BB10 platform, the touch-screen BlackBerry Z10, and the Q10 with a physical keyboard. CEO Thorsten Heins also announced numerous high-profile app partners and was later joined on stage by U.S. musician Alicia Keys, the company’s newly named global creative director.
In Canada the Z10 will be available on February…
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GATINEAU – Wind Mobile has some pretty harsh words for the CRTC’s attempt at creating a wireless code of conduct for mobile service providers. The upstart carrier says the Commission completely missed the boat in not addressing three-year contracts and the de-linking of handset subsidies and service terms.
Simon Lockie, chief regulatory officer at Wind, lauds the CRTC for taking this necessary step to listen to consumers concerns and try to implement a wireless code of conduct, but by not dealing with three-year term contracts or exploring ways to separate handset subsidization from service pricing, the Commission is missing a…
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SOME BEHIND-THE-SCENES moves that look a lot like estate planning for Shaw Communications founder and controlling shareholder JR Shaw – along with the recent deal his company put together to sell the former Mountain Cable system and the rights to wireless spectrum out west to Rogers Communications – make it seem like the outright sale of Shaw is not to far over the horizon, says at least one Bay Street analyst.
"We believe the RCI-SJR (Rogers-Shaw) merger is inevitable but this is not likely to take place within the next 20 months and will likely take…
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OTTAWA – Cable and satellite TV have joined the likes of dial-up home Internet as media technologies that are now declining in popularity with Canadians. On the flip side, technologies that are now rapidly expanding include streaming audio on mobile, video-on-demand, satellite radio, viewing TV online and Netflix. These are the findings of the Media Technology Adoption Fall 2012 English-language market report from Media Technology Monitor.
MTM surveyed 4,000 English-speaking Canadians and found the move towards smartphones and tablets continues unabated. More than half of Anglophones now own smartphones and over a quarter have tablets….
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NEW YORK – India-based satellite television channel Zee TV, in partnership with Ethnic Channels Group Limited (ECG), is launching Zee TV Canada on February 1 on Rogers, Bell and Telus.
Asian Television Network International (ATN), which serves Canada's Asian community, recently decided not to renew its licensing agreement for it rights to Zee TV's Hindi programming when it expires on January 31, 2013.
Zee TV will now be available to Canadian viewers as a 24/7 service for the first time. Canadian viewers who enjoyed Zee’s top programming such as Pavitra Rishta, Punarvivaah and…
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AFTER SIX YEARS, SATELLITE radio produced its first-ever profit in Canada when earlier this month SiriusXM Canada reported it was $3.3 million in the black for the first quarter of fiscal 2013.
For executive chairman John Bitove, that Q1 result is vindication after plugging away just as XM Canada to begin with – in competition with Sirius Canada – and then finally merging with it in 2011 two years after the American satellite radio companies combined themselves. Satellite radio faced numerous launch obstacles, chiefly convincing people to want to pay for radio in the first place,…
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WIND MOBILE WANTS THE federal government to throw whatever book it can at Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications over their recent spectrum deal.
Last week – as part of a multi-faceted $700 million transaction – Rogers Communications paid $50 million to Shaw Communications for an option which assures Rogers will purchase Shaw’s AWS spectrum when it is allowed to come on the open market in late 2014.
As a new entrant to the wireless game, Shaw paid $190 million for spectrum in the 2008 auction that was set aside just for wireless newcomers. Wind Mobile, Videotron, Shaw,…
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OTTAWA – It’s common these days to see Internet speeds still advertised with “up to” speeds that rarely ever approach the average speeds that subscribers will actually experience in practice. The problem is that most consumers believe they are getting, at least some of the time, the advertised speeds says the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) because they are not being properly informed. It’s calling on the Competition Bureau and CRTC to play a more active role in monitoring the compliance of ISP speed and performance claims in advertising and to develop rules for broadband labelling.
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MONTRÉAL – Videotron has named Sylvie Charette to the position of Vice President, Branding and Interactive Media. Charette will be responsible for promoting Videotron’s key brand differentiators. She will play a leading role in developing brand positioning strategies for the company’s different audiences while maintaining Videotron’s customer-focused approach to all corporate communications.
“Videotron is very happy to welcome Sylvie Charette aboard,” said Myrianne Collin. “Her leadership qualities, passion for telecommunications and professional skills will be valuable assets to the company. Sylvie’s mission will be to promote the Videotron brand in order to maintain its stature…
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OTTAWA – Five consumer and public advocacy groups have demanded that Minister of Industry Christian Paradis take action to prohibit Rogers Communications from acquiring spectrum from Shaw Communications, calling the deal “contrary to the original AWS auction rules of the set-aside” and contrary to “your Ministry’s clear policy to preserve that spectrum for new wireless entrants.”
The groups signing the January 21 letter were the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC), OpenMedia.ca, the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and the Council of Senior Citizens Organizations of British Columbia (COSCO).
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