MONTREAL – Bell Canada will use the Beijing Olympics to launch its new national brand tomorrow, aligning all of its products and services under the Bell name.
"The new Bell brand underlines that we are moving forward as a company and as a service provider, with new services, a new strategy and a new goal," said George Cope, president and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada, in a press release this morning. "It’s a straightforward and customer-focused brand that directly supports the Bell team’s goal: To be recognized by customers as Canada’s leading communications company."
The new Bell logo…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – IT security breaches are costing publicly traded Canadian companies an average loss of more than $637,000 annually, says a new study released by Telus and the Rotman School of Management.
In government, the cost is $320,000 per organization, while the cost to private companies is $294,000 a year.
Similar studies in the U.S. show the cost of data security breaches more than doubling year over year, rising to an average of US$345,000 in 2007 from US$167,713 in 2006 for public companies. There is no similar benchmark data for Canada, but Rotman business economics professor Dr. Walid Hejazi…
Continue Reading
CHICAGO – Zouheir Mansourati’s task Wednesday morning was to show delegates to the IPTV World North America conference what Telus has learned so far, two years into its IPTV deployment.
The vice-president technology strategy for the Canadian telco noted first that choosing a “best-in-class” product for every piece of the IPTV pie is probably not the best idea.
“It’s far more important to have an overall system, that works together well,” he said. “You can’t have ‘best-of-class’ in every component if they don’t work together.”
Most important, though, of those components, is to choose the right set top box….
Continue Reading
THIS WAS THE FIRST North American version of the IPTV World conference which is put on in a number of places around the globe throughout the year by London-based Informa Telecoms and Media.
A bit surprising since North America will be leading IPTV development for the foreseeable future. Prior shows have taken place all around the globe.
“IPTV is no longer just a theoretical solution of what telcos might do in the future, but a real see it now reality,” said Ian Tapp, SVP business development for Tandberg Television, who gave the opening keynote speech on Tuesday morning.
There…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Canadian telecom’s movers and shakers will be celebrated at the 2008 Telecom Laureate Awards gala dinner and induction ceremonies, October 29, 2008 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa/Gatineau.
This year, Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame will induct contemporary entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders into the Hall of Fame, including: * Jim Balsillie (RIM) * Mike Lazaridis (RIM) * Carol Stephenson (Richard Ivey School of Business) * David Golden (Telesat Canada) * The late David Simmonds and his sons, Robert Simmonds, Gordon Simmonds and Donald Simmonds (Lenbrook Communications)
This year’s recipient of the Hall of Fames Special…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Telus is encouraging the federal government to invest $1 billion of the $4.25 billion raised in the wireless spectrum auction to pursue its goal of making Canada the most connected country in the world. The auction says Telus has provided an unprecedented opportunity to bring broadband Internet services to thousands of rural communities.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make Canada the most connected nation in the world and advance the government’s own agenda of making ours an even more competitive economy," said Janet Yale, Telus executive vice-president of corporate affairs. "More than $4 billion has been…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Finally, after nearly two months of bidding, involving 331 rounds, Canada’s auction of wireless spectrum ended today, but is merely the first wave of change that will transform the nation’s telecommunications industry.
Canadian companies bid a total of $4.25 billion for 282 wireless-airwave licenses, the proceeds are more than twice the amount analysts had expected. The 15 successful bidders of the auction that began May 27 are eligible to receive licenses after making their final payments and showing compliance with Canadian ownership and control requirements.
Rogers Communications, Canada’s largest wireless carrier, bid $999.4 million for 59 licenses, reports…
Continue Reading
CHICAGO – With IPTV on course to become a credible Pay TV platform in North America, even though nobody expects AT&T or Verizon to crush the cable or satellite industry with their broadcast TV and VOD offers, IPTV is achieving good penetration in markets where it has deployed, says the organizers of the IPTV North America conference, to be held in Chicago July 22 and 23.
(Cartt.ca, as a media partner, will be providing coverage from the Windy City next week.)
In January, Verizon was claiming 21% video penetration for Keller, Texas, just four months after the service was…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – A review of broadcasting in new media is utterly unnecessary, says an unprecedented joint submission to the CRTC by Canada’s largest Internet service providers.
Friday was the deadline for submissions on PN 2008-44, which only asked for comments on what the scope of any future proceeding on Canadian broadcasting in new media might be. The Commission wants advice on what questions it might ask when it decides to undertake a review of what new media is doing to broadcasting and what Canadian regulations might have to say about it. At this point, it doesn’t want to…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – While BCE deals with a few other things, Telus today confirmed that wireless clients have never been required to pay for spam text messages – and announced an even easier way for customers to receive credits for any spam text messages they might receive.
Beginning August 24, clients can simply send any spam message to 7726 with the word SPAM in the body of the message and their account will be adjusted automatically. The credit will be processed with no questions asked of the client by Telus. This change has no impact on any Telus mobile email…
Continue Reading
