TORONTO – It was easy to see Wednesday that Tony Lacavera was really stung by the critics who decried the level of Canadian-ness of his company.
No less than seven times in his speech to the Canadian Telecom Summit did the Globalive/Wind CEO feel the need to insist upon the new wireless carrier’s Canuck bona fides.
“I won’t shy away from saying that Globalive is a Canadian company… truly a brainchild of Canadians… created by and for Canadians,” he said during his speech.
Lacavera rehashed the 2009 regulatory battles, lashing out at the incumbent operators which used every tactic in their arsenal…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – New players in the Canadian wireless space say they’re happy with how things are going so far, but they admit it’s still very early days yet.
Two of the newest entrants spoke during a panel discussion at the Canadian Telecom Summit here on Wednesday afternoon. Both Wind Mobile Canada CEO Ken Campbell and Mobilicity president and CEO Dave Dobbin said their wireless service launches have been going as planned. Wind Mobile recently announced service availability in its fifth urban market – Vancouver – while Mobilicity launched service in its very first market – Toronto – only three weeks ago….
Continue Reading
EVEN THE NON-SPORTS fan will know there’s a bit of a soccer tournament about to begin in South Africa this weekend. And yesterday was press release day on the TV front.
In Canada, the CBC is leading the coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup with broadcast across multiple platforms, a World Cup CBC mobile app – and the third place and final games are to be available in 3D for the dozens (?) of fans who have new 3DTVs.
After CBC sent out it’s announcement, so did Shaw Cable, Telus, Shaw Direct, Cogeco, Rogers…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – In light of Industry Minister Clement’s comments on foreign investment on Monday, it wasn’t long before the topic du jour came up again at Tuesday’s ‘Regulatory Blockbuster’ panel, an annual highlight of the Canadian Telecom Summit.
And while all six of the panelists supported the idea in theory, sparks flew, albeit in a good natured way (well, most of the time), on how best to loosen Canada’s foreign ownership restrictions.
Mirko Bibic, Bell’s senior vice-president of regulatory and government affairs, said his company favours the approach put forth by CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein to boost foreign ownership…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – With Canadian consumer adoption of smart phones still relatively low, meaning tremendous market opportunity right now, one device maker says he’s concerned about a shift in focus toward consumer-oriented mobile applications at the expense of the kinds of productivity apps that drive enterprise business growth.
Jeff McDowell, senior vice-president of business marketing and alliances for Waterloo, Ont.-based Research In Motion, said individual employees within organizations are increasingly influencing corporate policies regarding smart phone adoption and usage. Instead of simply accepting a new mobile device their employer wants them to use, many employees are expecting their companies to…
Continue Reading
TORONTO and OTTAWA – Reaction to this week’s new draft copyright legislation was swift and predictably varied.
A coalition of Canada’s telecommunications, retail, Internet and technology companies and organizations, known as the Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright, largely supported the bill. But some parts of the legislation unfairly restrict consumer freedom and need to be revised before being passed by Parliament, such as the inability to circumvent digital locks for private use, the organization said in a statement.
The group includes the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, Bell Canada, Cogeco Cable, Rogers, Telus, Google, the CCSA and the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, among others.
The…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – CRTC commissioners were given a lesson in basic cable architecture on Wednesday as Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, Videotron and EastLink faced the panel considering CRTC 2009-261, the wholesale high-speed access services proceeding.
The overall message appeared to be a detailed reminder to the Regulator from cable that “we’re different. Cable is a shared network that can’t be unbundled.”
Some have asked, for example, that a single 6 MHz channel (the space in which one analog TV channel is transmitted but which can be crammed full of digital and IP data and is by MSOs) be set aside for wholesale access by…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Nokia’s Ovi Store is open for business in Canada.
Touting itself as the easiest way to find content for Nokia’s devices, the Ovi Store allows Canadians to download and personalize their Nokia mobile device with a range of free and paid apps, games, themes and ringtones with content that supports more than 30 languages.
Thanks to integrated billing with Bell, Rogers and Telus, the cost of purchased apps will appear on a customers’ wireless provider bill.
“We are proud to be one of the first manufacturers and Nokia offices in the world to offer integrated billing with all major carriers,”…
Continue Reading
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
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
