KELOWNA, B.C. – Every May a few hundred of telco and cable industry tech types gather at the Coast Capri Hotel in Kelowna for the CommTech Trade Show and Seminars.
A total of 77 exhibitors fill the show floor while 25 seminars educate the industry folks in attendance. The Tuesday golf tournament was a success as well.
Cartt.ca is here of course. Editor and publisher Greg O’Brien is taking snapshots (below) and moderating a DOCSIS 3.0 session Thursday afternoon.
Sun Country Cable’s Jay Bobrowich (above left) and Arcom Labs Basil Dillon Malone
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LOS ANGELES–In a continuing break with their long-time public stance, North America’s largest cable operators are now openly racing to embrace IP video technology for their expanding portfolios of video offerings.
In a panel discussion at the Cable Show here this week, the chief technology officers and senior engineering executives of five major MSOs said they’re all looking to switch their cable systems to IP video so they can offer more video fare, reach more display devices, and cut delivery costs. At least one of the large MSOs, Time Warner Cable, is reportedly gearing up for an IP video…
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HALIFAX – Telus is urging its customers to think pink.
Between now and October 31, 2010, Telus has pledged to donate $25 from the purchase of every pink BlackBerry Curve 8530 or its pink BlackBerry Pearl 3G smart phone towards new high-tech equipment to help with the early detection of breast cancer.
The coast-to-coast campaign will benefit BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre Foundation, Alberta Cancer Foundation, Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, CancerCare Manitoba, Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation in Toronto, The Ottawa Hospital Foundation, Segal Cancer Center at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital and QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax.
"As a Canadian technology…
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WHY DO THE OLD TV sets in the living rooms, garages, kitchens or at the cottages of millions of Canadians deserve to go digital?
As the transition to digital over-the-air TV deadline grows closer and the industry is awakening to the need to act, the question has been asked in some quarters: Why bother?
We can keep fibbing if we want but as an industry we already know it’s now impossible to update our over-the-air television broadcasting system to digital by the August 31, 2011 deadline set years ago by the CRTC. Not “virtually impossible.” Not “challenging.” It is not…
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VANCOUVER – While revenue growth was flat and high speed Internet subscriber additions surprisingly low in the first quarter of 2010, ended March 31st, Telus still managed to please the street, thanks in part to a 5.3% increase in the dividend to shareholders and growth in other areas.
Over the 12 month period, total customer connections increased 2.4% or 276,000, driven by a 6.4% increase in wireless subscribers and 103% growth in Telus TV customers, partially offset by declines in legacy landline connections the company said in its quarterly report to shareholders on Wednesday. Telus now has over 200,000 TV…
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THE LEADERS OF SHAW Communications took a look at the media landscape around us and decided that if they’re going to be a player in the new always on, video on demand culture, one which is expanding by the second, they had better own some hit shows. Some good brands.
And Monday it announced a $2 billion deal to purchase the TV assets of Canwest Global outright – a move that will cement it as the leading media and distribution company in Canada. The prior deal Shaw announced earlier this year was to purchase just 20% of the company.
Rogers…
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FREDERICTON – Bell Aliant has won a court injunction preventing Rogers from claiming to have the ‘fastest and most reliable’ high speed Internet product.
Tuesday’s ruling in a New Brunswick court ordered Rogers to stop using phrases like the “fastest speed,” “most reliable speed,” or “fastest and most reliable speed” in its advertising. Bell Aliant president and CEO Karen Sheriff said that the company “very pleased with the judge’s ruling”.
“We undertook this action to ensure that our customers have access to clear and accurate information”, Sheriff said in a statement. “We understand that marketing and advertising in a competitive industry is…
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THE TRANSITION TO DIGITAL television in Canada is officially Heritage Minister James Moore’s to deal with, but Industry Minister Tony Clement doesn’t want to see the August 31, 2011 deadline moved.
That was the word we received directly from Industry Minister Tony Clement on Friday during an interview (which you’ll read below) in his Parliament Hill office.
Cartt.ca readers will know we’ve been prodding the industry and the federal government about their inaction on the transition to digital broadcast television. Using our bully pulpit here and directly with the ministers on Twitter (they are @TonyClement_MP and @mpjamesmoore).
In a…
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OTTAWA – The case goes back a few years and involves a complex network migration of Department of National Defence telecom services from Bell to Telus, but Telus is again insisting to the CRTC that its decisions in the DND versus Bell Canada dispute will have a negative impact on future competition in the large enterprise market.
The western-based telco filed the Part VII on April 12, appealing two previous rulings in the case (Decisions 2009-85 and 2010-11).
The CRTC ultimately determined that DND would have to pay Bell for a set period of time while services were…
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Perry Hoffman
OTTAWA – It’s not very often the country’s telecommunications and cable firms agree with anything the regulator has to say, but on foreign ownership rules, they at least partially support the CRTC’s proposal to a Parliamentary committee studying the matter.
One after the other last week, they addressed the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on the need to liberalize current foreign investment restrictions for both telecommunications and broadcasting companies. They echoed the CRTC’s position that regulations can protect Canadian content on television and radio.
“While we do not believe there is a problem today, given…
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